Canada's wins gold at beach volleyball worlds
The Canadian Press July 6 2019
HAMBURG — Canada's Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes are world beach volleyball champions.
The duo defeated Americans April Ross and Alexandra Klineman 2-0 (23-21, 23-21) to win Canada's first gold medal — and first world championship medal overall — in beach volleyball.
Pavan, from Kitchener, Ont., and Toronto's Humana-Paredes came into the competition ranked sixth in the world. The Americans were one spot ahead of them in fifth.
Pavan and Humana-Paredes edged Switzerland's Tanja Huberli and Nina Betschart 2-1 (23-21, 17-21, 19-17) in semifinal action on Friday.
The pair recorded Canada's previous best finish in beach volleyball world championship history when they finished fourth in Vienna in 2017.
The event has been held every two years since 1997.
Pavan was one of Canada's top indoor volleyball players when she switched to beach for the opportunity to play in the Olympics.
She made her Canadian senior indoor debut as a 16-year-old. The six-foot-five lefty starred at the University of Nebraska, winning the Honda-Broderick Cup as the NCAA's top female athlete — in any sport — in 2007. She led the Cornhuskers to a 33-1 season and an NCAA title while maintaining a 4.0 grade-point average in biochemistry.
At the national level, however, Canada hasn't had a women's indoor volleyball team in the Olympics since 1996.
Pavan made her beach volleyball Olympic debut at the Rio Games in 2016, finishing fifth with then-partner Heather Bansley.
Pavan and Humana-Paredes won gold together at the Commonwealth Games in 2018.
Humana-Paredes partnered with Taylor Pischke for a fourth-place finish at the last Pan American Games in Toronto in 2015.