Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson won the big eighthfinal clash with USA’s Kristen Nuss & Taryn Kloth on Monday afternoon and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Paris 2024 women’s beach volleyball tournament, where they will take on Spanish sensations Daniela Alvarez & Tania Moreno on Wednesday. Just before that, the American men’s pairing of Miles Partain & Andrew Benesh secured a spot in the last eight after shutting out Italy’s Samuele Cottafava & Paolo Nicolai.

Fourth-seeded Melissa & Brandie delivered a hard-fought 2-0 (21-19, 21-18) upset of second-seeded Nuss & Kloth to knock one of the main medal candidates out of contention.

In the first set, Nuss & Kloth broke away with a 14-9 lead before Melissa & Brandie went on a six-point streak to take control and eventually win by the narrowest of margins. In set two, the Canadians quickly broke away with a five-point lead at 8-3. The Americans fought back and finally caught up at 18-18, only to concede the next three points with Brandie killing the overpass for the 21-18 match winner. While Brandie impressed with her five kill blocks to finish with 17 points, Melissa shined from the serving line with four aces towards a match-high 19 points. Kloth led the American side with 15.

“It was tight at the end of the sets – that’s all I remember and that’s all that I truly expected at this point against that team,” Melissa said after the game. “They are a very strong team and whenever we have battles with them we go the distance. You can never count them out. They are going to get their points, we are going to get our points and it’s just about who is going to be the last one standing out there. I think we stuck really diligently on our defence, we kept the service pressure on them and did not give them too many breaks.”

“Every game is a big hurdle, but as long as you are here and you are playing, you are doing good,” Brandie added. “We are treating every game like a whole new tournament. We just did this one and now we are on to the next tournament. It’s going to be a long journey... We are extremely grateful and honoured to be representing our country, representing our game, our work and our team.”

In one of Wednesday’s quarterfinals, Melissa & Brandie will be challenged by Spain’s Alvarez & Moreno, who sensationally knocked out Dutch standouts Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon earlier on Monday.

“We had really been focusing on the game at hand and we’ve just found out whom we are playing next,” Melissa told the FIVB. “So I currently have zero thoughts. I am still trying to process that win, but I think all the teams here in the quarterfinals of the Olympics are incredible and they have all earned the right to be here. I think at the end of the day, what we did in this game we will just do in the next game as in focus on our side.”

In the seventh men’s eighthfinal, played just before the game between Nuss & Kloth and Melissa & Brandie, ninth-seeded Partain & Benesh mastered a convincing 2-0 (21-17, 21-18) shutout of 12^th-seeded Cottafava & Nicolai to advance to eighthfinals at their rookie Olympic appearance.

Benesh’s blocking made the biggest difference in the match, most of which proceeded under the control of the Americans. Benesh himself produced five stuffs, against none from the Italians, and added two aces to his tally to share the top scorer honours of the match with Nicolai on 15 points each.

In the quarterfinals, Partain & Benesh will meet the winner of the last eighthfinal, between Qatar’s Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan and Chile’s Marco Grimalt & Esteban Grimalt, to be played at 22:00 local time (20:00 UTC) on Monday evening.

Olympic Games Paris 2024 Beach Volleyball: schedule and results

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