Beach Volleyball

[Josh 10,321]

Humana-Paredes/Wilkerson win AVP Huntington Beach! Huge momentum boost for them heading into the Olympics, defeating Cheng/Hughes in straight sets in the semifinals, and Kloth/Nuss 2-1 in the final, improving their H2H to 4-8! They were also up 1-0 against the latter in an earlier match, but lost 1-2.

 

Watched the final live of course, just was too busy to update earlier 

[Josh 10,321]

Heather Bansley/Sophie Bukovec with another great run as they advance to the semifinals at the Stare Jablonki Challenge! 

 

Sarah Pavan/Molly McBain and Sam Schachter/Dan Dearing both finish in 9th. With Spain making it to the semifinals, they overtake Pavan/McBain in the Olympic Rankings, and fall out of an Olympic quota spot with just one Elite16 to go. Likely won’t change anything. I for one, am actually glad. Pavan/McBain have been in horrible form this season (they’ve farmed the majority of their points late in the year, when most teams were in their off season), and Bansley/Bukovec have been on fire. But now there’s the risk that we don’t qualify a second pairing, even if it’s unlikely. Puerto Rico have the potential to upset. 

[intoronto 5,589]

40 minutes ago, Josh said:

Heather Bansley/Sophie Bukovec with another great run as they advance to the semifinals at the Stare Jablonki Challenge! 

 

Sarah Pavan/Molly McBain and Sam Schachter/Dan Dearing both finish in 9th. With Spain making it to the semifinals, they overtake Pavan/McBain in the Olympic Rankings, and fall out of an Olympic quota spot with just one Elite16 to go. Likely won’t change anything. I for one, am actually glad. Pavan/McBain have been in horrible form this season (they’ve farmed the majority of their points late in the year, when most teams were in their off season), and Bansley/Bukovec have been on fire. But now there’s the risk that we don’t qualify a second pairing, even if it’s unlikely. Puerto Rico have the potential to upset. 

Who would Canada send to the NORCECA qualifiers?

[Josh 10,321]

7 minutes ago, intoronto said:

Who would Canada send to the NORCECA qualifiers?

Bansley/Bukovec, as the selection criteria for the event is your top 4 finishes in 2024. 

[Josh 10,321]

Heather Bansley/Sophie Bukovec finish 4th. Forfitted the bronze medal match due to injury, but judging from Bukovec’s Instagram story don’t think it’s anything serious and seems as if they’re still going to Ostrava. 

[Josh 10,321]

Silver for Melissa Humana-Parades/Brandie Wilkerson at the Ostrava Elite16, losing to Cheng/Hughes in 3.

 

Humana-Parades was horrible offensively, she couldn’t make a kill for the majority of the match, and Cheng/Hughes serving Wilkerson for part of it (no reason whatsoever) was pretty much what kept them in it. 

[Josh 10,321]

Beach Volleyball U20 World Championships are from now until August 31! 
 

Besides the medal matches I probably won’t be watching any more (I watched a Canadian match today) as I’ll be too busy with the Paralympics, but in about a week or so I’ll update you all!

[Josh 10,321]

Odigie/Kok lost in 3 to Rayner/Zajer (was watching, I’m pretty sure they had an 11-8 lead in set 3 at one point?) at the Beach Volleyball U20 Championships to finish joint 9th. 

[Josh 10,321]

Humana-Parades/Wilkerson won the AVP Chicago Open title yesterday, defeating the likes of Cheng/Hughes and Kloth/Nuss!