Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson will take on Switzerland’s Tanja Huberli & Nina Brunner in one of the women’s Olympic beach volleyball tournament semifinals on Thursday. In the other, Brazil’s Ana Patricia Ramos & Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) will face Australia’s Mariafe Artacho Del Solar & Taliqua Clancy. That means the four different continents will be represented in the deciding battles for the distribution of the Olympic medals.

In the first quarterfinal on Wednesday’s programme, fourth-seeded Melissa & Brandie outclassed young Spanish sensations Daniela Alvarez & Tania Moreno, seeded 18^th, on the way to a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) win. Improving to a 4-2 win-loss record at Paris 2024, the Canadian pair advanced to the semifinals.

The first set was very tight and competitive through 15-15. At that point, Melissa & Brandie broke away with four in a row and closed the set at 21-18 shortly after on a long serve by the opponents. Alvarez & Moreno were the first to break away in the second set, with four in a row for 8-5, but the Canadians reacted swiftly, and also with four in a row, gained a 10-9 lead. At 14-14 was the last time the score was tied. Melissa & Brandie took control and never let go until Melissa’s elegant hit closed the match at another 21-18.

Brandie led the way with 17 points, including three kill blocks. Melissa contributed another 13 points towards the victory. Moreno led the Spanish team with 15 points.

“It was a very back-and-forth match,” Melissa told the FIVB. “I think Spain is a strong team. They are young and feisty. They fight with a lot of freedom. They have great momentum this tournament. They have just been building throughout the season to get better and better… So we knew that. We knew that they would come out strong and we had to be patient on our side defensively, and just kind of play free and loose. And on our side, there was a big emphasis on our offence, staying aggressive and making sure that we were dialed, and then putting some service pressure…”

“Every single team here is of excellent calibre, so every single time it’s a difficult game,” Brandie added. “Luckily we’ve faced a lot of challenges just before getting to this, so we are embracing difficult times and making something very beautiful out of it. I am so proud of our team, our resilience, our grit and the promises we’ve made to each other to continuously show up.”

In the last women’s quarterfinal, top-seeded Ana Patricia & Duda lived up to their status and hammered out a 2-0 (21-16, 21-10) victory over ninth-seeded Tina & Anastasija, extending their perfect run at Paris 2024 to five consecutive straight-set wins.

Tina & Anastasija stormed the match on an incredible 6-0 run, but it was as if that only infuriated the number one team in the world. They not only recovered swiftly to catch up at 7-7, but broke away and opened a five-point lead of their own, which they kept up through the 21-16 close, shaped up with a block-out hit by Ana Patricia. There was no stopping the Brazilians in the second set either. They absolutely dominated on the court and cruised on to an emphatic 21-10 win.

Duda topped the scorers’ charts of the match with 17 points, including two aces, while Ana Patricia also delivered two aces, in addition to five kill blocks and nine points in attack. Anastasija was Latvia’s leading scorer with 14 points, including three aces.

Olympic Games Paris 2024 Beach Volleyball: schedule and results

Quick links:
Paris 2024 Olympic Beach Volleyball
VBTV
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
Subscribe to Volleyball World's Newsletter