Nov. 18, 2025: Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, both of Toronto, defeated Valentyna Davidova and Anhelina Khmil of Ukraine 2-0 (21-18, 21-12) today at the 2025 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship in Adelaide, Australia.

The Canadians now advance to the round of 16.

Today’s match began with a challenging first set for Canada, but the team kept its composure throughout the contest. "I don’t think the score really reflected the challenge they gave us,” said Humana-Paredes. “I think if we didn’t rise to the occasion or if we didn’t execute at a high level, they could have easily pushed us to the limits. Overall, we are really happy with the 2-0 win.”

This team, 2024 Olympic silver medalists, will have a day off before meeting Spain’s Daniela Álvarez Mendoza and Tania Moreno (ranked 18) on Nov. 20 in the next round.

"Regrouping is the key here. We will have the opportunity to really reset in mind and body. It’s a long tournament and we really want to be prepared for every match,” said Wilkerson.

Also on Tuesday, Sam Schachter (Richmond Hill, ON) and Jonny Pickett (Wiarton, ON) earned a 2-1 (21-18, 19-21, 15-9) win over Ruben Penninga and Matthew Immers of Netherlands and advance to play the world number-one team, top-seeded Anders Mol and Christian Sørum of Norway.

Relative newcomer Pickett was the Canadian team’s leading scorer with 20 points against the Dutch.

"From a sideout point, we were both steady, and they couldn’t really find a way to stop us. It gave us some stability and offered us some time to find our defensive rhythm, which we connected with,” said two-time Olympian Schachter. “Jonny was enormous at the net and basically took over that first set. We want to keep growing and stick to our process… It will be incredibly competitive from now on, and we’re ready for it.”

It was arguably the strongest performance by this team at the Worlds so far.

“I said during the timeout in the first set that there was no chance we could lose this match because during the first quarter of this game, Sam covered three blocks for Jonny,” said their coach, Srdjan Veckov, half-jokingly. "He has never done that in training, so I knew there was no way we could lose this match!"

The Canadian men’s team will face the Norwegian Olympic medalists in the round of 32 at 7:30 pm local time, which is 4 am EST on Nov. 19.

The final Canadian team at these Worlds - Lea Monkhouse (Mississauga, ON) and Marie-Alex Bélanger (Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez, QC) - did not advance to the elimination rounds after a tough 0-3 pool phase.

Note: Local times listed are 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

Volleyball Canada media contact:
Jackie Skender
1.613.794.7676 (WhatsApp)