Melissa/Brandie and Evans/Budinger Win their sixteenthfinals to snatch last eighthfinal vacancies at Paris 2024

PARIS, France, August 3, 2024.- Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson won in the women’s sixteenthfinal match of the so-called “lucky-loser” round on Saturday evening and qualified for the eighthfinals of the Olympic beach volleyball tournament. USA’s Miles Evans & Chase Budinger was one of the men’s pairs that survived the first knockout round of the tournament and moved into the last 16.

Fourth-seeded Melissa & Brandie overcame the resistance of 22nd-seeded Barbora Hermannova & Marie-Sara Stochlova of Czechia and defeated them in a 2-0 (21-15, 21-12) straight-setter to snatch the last vacancy in the women’s eighthfinals. Melissa led the way with 20 points, including four aces.

The sixteenthfinal round started earlier with one of the men’s matches, but unfortunately it lasted only three rallies before Canada’s Samuel Schachter & Daniel Dearing withdrew because of Dearing’s injury against 23rd-seeded Grimalt & Grimalt of Chile who won by forfeit.

“Obviously, we are frustrated. We want to be able to compete,” Sam Schachter commented. “It’s super disappointing that we weren’t able to get Dan’s back to a place where he can compete, but we really tried our hardest, including Dan and our entire team; we are grateful for their help; but that’s part of sport. Sometimes injuries happen… Obviously, horrific timing! It’s a nightmare for Dan and me. You know we wanted to be able to share that moment with our families and the crowd and get that Olympic spirit, but obviously, it didn’t happen today.”

In the last match of the day, 19th-seeded Miles Evans & Chase Budinger of the United States achieved a 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) victory over 15th-seeded Thomas Hodges & Zachery Schubert of Australia and picked up the last ticket to the men’s eighthfinals. Budinger was the best scorer of the game. He raised four kill blocks and finished with a total of 17 points.

Two NORCECA teams will be competing among the first matches of the eightfinals scheduled on Sunday. In the men’s division 16th-seeded Cubans Noslen Diaz and Jorge Alayo face first-seeded Swedish David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig at 2:00pm local time. In women, third-seeded Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng of the United States go up against 12th-seeded Valentina Gottardi and Marta Menegatti of Italy.

Olympic Games Paris 2024 Beach Volleyball: schedule and results