Brandie and Melissa set to make first semifinal appearance

OSTRAVA,  Czech Republic, June 3, 2023.- Canadians Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes are ready to fight for their first international medal after just three events together as they continued their impeccable run at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event in Ostrava, Czechia, on Saturday with another win and are now set to compete in the semifinals of the tournament on Sunday.

The Canadian Olympians will face Americans Terese Cannon and Sarah Sponcil in one of the semifinals of the women’s tournament in Ostrava, at 09:00 local time (07:00 UTC).

Watch all matches at the Beach Pro Tour Ostrava Elite16 event live on VBTV.

To make it to the semifinals in Ostrava, the two, who started the tournament on Wednesday’s qualifier, had to win six matches and they did so while dropping just one set. That happened on Saturday, when they faced Americans Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss in the quarterfinals and pulled off a hard-fought, three-set (21-19, 13-21, 15-12) win.

Their next opponents Cannon and Sponcil had as long of a route as theirs, also beginning their campaign in Ostrava in the qualifier. The Americans won five of their six matches in Ostrava so far and prevailed over Swiss Olympic medalists Anouk Vergé-Dépré and Joana in the quarterfinals with a comfortable 2-0 (21-16, 21-14) victory.

VW Beach Pro Tour Ostrava Elite16: schedule and results

In men, Americans Andy Benesh and Miles Partain also reached the semifinals and will face Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan of Qatar on Sunday at 12:00 local time (10:00 UTC)

Partain and Benesh had a long route to the semifinals, having played as many as seven matches since they started their campaign in Ostrava, on Wednesday, in the qualifier. The Americans had two matches on Saturday and overcame Poland’s Michal Bryl and Bartosz Losiak 2-0 (21-19, 21-19) in the Round of 12 and Swedish David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig also in two sets (21-18, 21-0) in the quarterfinals – Hellvig was forced to withdraw from the match at the end of the first set after he sustained a wrist injury.