August 08: Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson have made Canadian beach volleyball history by advancing to the country's first gold-medal final at an Olympic Games.

Today, they beat Tanja Hüberli and Nina Brunner of Switzerland after a tie break to land in the final.

• The score was 14-21, 22-20 and 15-12. Info and stats: https://bit.ly/4coM0rM

"There was a lot of energy winning that second set," explained Wilkerson, “We knew they didn’t want that third set, so we were determined to close that one out. We just looked at each other and we just knew it was a whole new game… we just showed up and stuck to the goal, which was to win.”

Despite dropping the first set, the team was able to keep it tight throughout the next set and force extra points in the second, leading to the tie-break showdown. Although Switzerland led in attack points (29-27) and service aces (7-3), Canada had more points from blocks (7-4) and made one fewer error (13-14). Wilkerson was the best scorer of the match with 25 points, also including an ace.

“We had our goals set very high,” said Humana-Paredes, "I don’t think they are out of reach at all. … why stop now? I don’t think we’ve even played our best volleyball yet and tomorrow’s the day to bring it out.

“I mean, we can stand with our heads proud that we have that opportunity for a medal, but we won't lose sight that the gold is our goal."

Canada will play Brazil in the gold medal final at 10:30 pm local time (4:30 pm local) on August 9.

• Beach Volleyball schedule and results.
• Team Canada: www.olympic.ca

Photo: Canadian Olympic Committee

Volleyball Canada Media contact:
Jackie Skender : jskender@volleyball.ca
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