Canada's Brandie Wilkerson, left, and Melissa Humana-Paredes celebrate after winning their women's beach volleyball quarterfinal match against Spain at the Paris Olympics on Aug. 7.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson came to the Paris Olympics wanting to make history together. They got their first taste of it Wednesday.
At centre court, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, the Canadian beach volleyball duo defeated Spain in straight sets, both by a score of 21-18, advancing to Thursday’s semi-finals.
It is the furthest a Canadian women’s beach volleyball squad has advanced at the Olympics, putting Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes in contention for a medal.
It is also is the deepest either player has gone at the Summer Games, after both made the quarter-finals three years ago in Tokyo flanked by different partners. Advancing further this time was their mission going into Paris.
“When we got together, we wanted to make history together. And I think this is the first step there. There’s still a lot to go but I think this is the first step in what we promised to ourselves,” said Humana-Paredes, still brushing the sand off her arms post-match.
But their goal in Paris is bigger than the matches themselves. They believe a medal in women’s beach volleyball could be transformational for the sport at home.
“We’re holding each other accountable to doing that, and really growing the game, hopefully making our country proud, inspiring young athletes, young women, young girls of colour, to play beach volleyball, to look at beach volleyball and hopefully to just be yourselves.”
After both were stopped in the round of eight three years ago, Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes are banking on their mix of skills and chemistry being the answer.
Humana-Peredes, 32, made it to the quarter-finals in Tokyo with then-partner Sarah Pavan, but they were defeated by Australia.
Wilkerson, 28, also made it to the quarter-finals three years ago, teaming up with Heather Bansley, but lost to Latvia.
Wilkerson said Wednesday’s win was a thank-you to their former partners, and to the Canadian women who paved the way for them.
The match was close early on, with Canada and Spain trading points and exchanging leads, each struggling to single-handedly control the momentum.
“When it’s back and forth like that for a while, it’s easy to get a little frustrated and be like, ‘Why aren’t we turning points?’ Why aren’t we getting into a rhythm here?’” Humana-Paredes said. “And so I think for us to really remain patient and really steady together, connected, was really important.”
Toward the end of each set, when it mattered most, the Canadians exerted their will, using a mixture of offensive power and finesse, coupled with stifling blocks on defence.
Having never played the duo of Daniela Alvarez Mendoza and Tania Moreno Matveeva, Wilkerson said the Canadians had to adjust according to the tactics the Spaniards were throwing at them. But the Canadians said a defence-first approach helped get them through the match, along with analyzing video of the Spanish side’s previous matches.
“Definitely a lot of communication,” Wilkerson said, referring to how they approached the game on-court and off. “We have an amazing team of coaches that have scouted for hours and hours to give us kind of a fast track,” Wilkerson said.
“But really, the theme of our team is controlling our side and making sure that we don’t get too caught up in overthinking things.”
At various times in their volleyball careers the two players have been teammates and rivals, which has helped foster their chemistry in Paris, Humana-Paredes said.
Canada’s best showing in Olympic beach volleyball came at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games, when John Child and Mark Heese won a bronze medal, on a squad coached by Humana-Paredes’s father Hernán Humaña.
“I don’t remember a lot,” Humana-Paredes said, noting that she was a child when they claimed that medal. But over the years she has come to appreciate what it takes to win at the Olympic level, which she hopes will lead to success in Paris.
“I remember the relationship that my dad had with his players and with what Mark and John had as a team,” Humana-Paredes said.
It was Humana-Paredes’s father who got Wilkerson, a high-school rugby player, into volleyball at a young age, cajoling her into attending a tryout, Wilkerson recalled.
“We wouldn’t be here if she didn’t go,” Humana-Paredes said.
The semi-finals will be played on Thursday where the two will face Switzerland’s Nina Brunner and Tanja Hueberli. The Canadians will be hoping to make a little more history in the process.
The gold-medal game is Friday.