Beach Volleyball: Canadian men join women in elimination rounds at worlds
Volleyball Canada’s men wrapped up their pool play at the 2017 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships on Wednesday and will be joining Canada’s women in the elimination round.
READ: Beach Volleyball: Canadian women advance to elimination rounds at worlds
Canada’s Ben Saxton and Chaim Schalk celebrate after beating Austria 2-1 to win their pool at the 2017 FIVB World Championships. Photo: FIVB
Atop their division with a perfect 3-0 record are Rio Olympic partners Chaim Schalk and Ben Saxton. The duo finished off pool play in a battle for first place in their pool and got it with a 2-1 win against home-favourite Austrians Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst on Tuesday. Currently seeded 13th, they will go on to play 20th seeds Marco Grimalt and Esteban Grimalt of Chile at 5:30 a.m. ET on Thursday.
Also heading to the Round of 32 will be Sam Pedlow and Sam Schachter with a record of two wins and one loss. Their one loss came from their last game against Spain’s Pablo Herrara Allepuz and Adriàn Gavira Collado, but Canadians will hope to see them rebound on Thursday in a matchup against Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo.
Aaron Nusbaum and Ryan Vandenburg will not be joining the pairs after finishing with a 1-2 record. Like Canada’s Jamie Broder and Taylor Pischke, they were granted a second chance in a Lucky Losers match, but fell short against Latvia’s Martins Plavins and Haralds Regza.
On the other side of the beach, Canada’s women had a successful day in the sand. In a tight match up against Brazil’s Barbara Seixas de Freitas and Fernanda Alves, the unstoppable pairing of Sarah Pavan and Melisssa Humana-Paredes advanced to the Round of 16 with a 2-0 win. They will go on to play Switzerland’s Tanja Hüberli and Nina Betschart at 5:30 a.m. ET on Thursday. Pavan and Humana-Paredes sit three spots ahead of them, seeded in seventh place.
Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan play against Brazil’s Barbara Seixas de Freitas and Fernanda Alves at the 2017 FIVB World Championships. Photo: FIVB
Teammates Brandie Wilkerson and Heather Bansley will be joining them in the next round after beating Gemany’s Karla Borger and Margareta Kozuch. The 15th seeds will go head-to-head with 26th seeds Lidiannis Echeverria Benitez and Leila Consuelo Martinez Ortega of Cuba at 6:30 a.m. ET.
Camille Saxton and Julie Gordon saw the end of their playoff run today, falling 2-0 to the heavily favoured pairing Riikka Lehtonen and Taru Lahti of Finland.
