Nov. 15, 2025: All three Canadian teams at the 2025 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship in Adelaide, Australia, have now experienced pool-play action with one match each completed.

On Saturday, Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson made quick work of Morocco's Mahassine/Dina 2-0 (21-4, 21-9).

"We’ve been itching to play; it’s been a lot of training and we’ve watched the other teams start the tournament yesterday (Nov. 14), so we’re like 'let’s get this one going.' … I felt this first match was pretty clinical; we wanted to be clean, which is what we did," said Humana-Paredes, former World Champion and 2024 Olympic silver medalist. "It’s always going to be what we can do on our side. This game and every game in this tournament will be managing our side. Tomorrow (Nov. 16), will be more of a strategic game; a defensive and service battle, so that’s what we are preparing for."

On Sunday, Melissa and Brandie face Katja Stam and Raïsa Schoon of Netherlands in their next pool play match.

Also on Saturday, the Canadian men’s team of Sam Schachter (Richmond Hill, ON) and Jonny Pickett (Wiarton, ON) faced Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler, Olympic silver medalists from Germany. Schachter, a two-time Olympian, and Pickett, battled the Germans, but ended in with a 2-0 loss.

"We had a pretty good game plan, which we believed in, and we had to make some mid-game adjustments. They obviously sided-out at a very high rate, but we weren’t able to capitalize on as many opportunities as we wanted. They covered a lot of blocks and we couldn’t find a way to score in transition," said Schachter. "There were a few good things that we can build on; they served aggressively and our side out was pretty smooth for about 90 percent of it. But tomorrow’s a new day and a new team. It’s time to refocus, reflect and recover."

The men meet Argentina on Sunday in their second Pool K matchup.

On Friday, Italy’s Gottardi/Orsi Toth, R., ranked 9th in the tournament, beat Canada’s Marie-Alex Bélanger (Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez, QC) and Lea Monkhouse (Mississauga, ON) 2-0 (21-18, 21-17).

"It’s really great for us and for our learning and growth to be competing against great teams - our pool is pretty stacked so it’s a good experience," said Monkhouse, who is competing in her first senior Worlds.

Monkhouse and Belanger face USA’s Donlin/Denaburg on Sunday, Nov. 16 at 5 pm local time (Australian Central Daylight Time, which is 15 and a half hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time).

VBTV offers worldwide coverage of all matches, and in Canada CBC Sports streams matches live as well.

Schedule and results: https://bit.ly/4qUvzw1

Photo: Philip Whitcombe

Volleyball Canada media contact:
Jackie Skender
1.613.794.7676 (WhatsApp)