UPDATE: Canada will play for gold vs. Brazil, April 20, 2021 at 5 pm EDT. 

April 19, 2021: Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes (Toronto) and Sarah Pavan (Kitchener, ON) advance to the semi-finals of the Cancun 4-Star event in Mexico.

In a familiar match-up, the 2019 World Champions defeated fellow Canadians Brandie Wilkerson (Toronto) and Heather Bansley (Waterdown, ON) 2-0 (21-12, 22-20) in the quarterfinals on Monday.

The unbeaten Canadian pair face Chantal Laboureur and Cinja Tillmann of Germany this evening at 7 pm EDT, or 6 pm local. Humana-Paredes and Pavan defeated this same pair in pool play 2-1 on Saturday.

Wilkerson and Bansley finish fifth in Cancun, and are on track to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics based on their rankings.

The only men’s team in the Cancun main draw from Canada was Grant O’Gorman (Scarborough, ON) and Ben Saxton (Calgary, AB), who finished ranked 25th.

The 4-star FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Cancun matches are available on YouTube.

Three consecutive 4-star events will be played in Cancun. The first tournament wraps up April 20 (Tuesday) - the second event will follow from April 22 to 26 and the third from April 28 to May 2.

Photo: FIVB

Media contact: Jackie Skender