Canada wins gold and silver in Vegas!
LAS VEGAS, Nevada, October 21, 2018 – Heather Bansley and
Brandie Wilkerson came out on top of the all-Canadian gold-medal
match at the FIVB Beach Volleyball Las Vegas Open on Sunday, and
won their first title in the 2018-2019 World Tour season.
Bansley (Waterdown, ON) and Wilkerson (Toronto, ON) battled to a
three-set win (21-17, 17-21, 15-9) over Melissa Humana-Paredes
(Toronto, ON) and Sarah Pavan (Kitchener, ON) in today’s final.
“We’re ecstatic, we’re obviously so happy – we put in a lot of
work and we’re proud to come out on top with the gold medal,”
said Wilkerson.
Both teams had an excellent tournament – winning all their
matches on the road to today’s final.
The two teams are familiar
opponents. After winning the first meeting between them in 2016,
Bansley and Wilkerson lost the next four, three of them in
straight sets. The series now stands at 4-3 in Pavan and Humana-Paredes’
favour after Bansley and Wilkerson beat them in the
quarterfinals of the NORCECA Championships recently.
“We approached this (final) just like other match…. I think
we’re just really motivated to keep doing well with Olympic
qualification starting,” said Bansley, a 2016 Olympian who has
the 2020 Games in her sights. "We both work really hard and we
think we can keep improving, and we set the bar pretty high for
ourselves – we are so thrilled with this win, but there are
still things that we can improve on. We’re looking forward to
more hard work this season.”
Carolina Salgado and Maria Elisa Antonelli secured the bronze
medal as their opponents, fellow Brazilians Rebecca Silva and
Ana Patricia Ramos, had to retire from the game after Ana
Patricia sustained a left ankle injury during the second set. |