FIVB: Three Teams Advance Past Pool Play
Melissa Humana-Paredes and Taylpr Pischke celebrate after defeating Germany to advance to Round 1 Photo: Everett Delorme
Ben Saxton and Chaim Schalk finished 3rd in Pool C with a 2-1 record. They opened the tournament with a 2-1 (18-21, 21-19, 15-13) win over Dutch team Brouwer/Meeuwsen in their only match of the day. On Thursday, they started the day with a 12-21, 17-21 loss at the hands of #3 Alison/Bruno from Brazil, but finished the day with a strong 2-1 (23-21, 19-21, 15-13) win over the Czech team of Kubala/Hadrava. The Dutch besting the Brazilians in their final match created a three-way tie for first place that unfortunately left the Canadians in third, although they will continue on to Round One where they will face Vitor Felipe/Evandro at 10:00 a.m. PT.
Sam Schachter and Josh Binstock are competing in their first FIVB event of the year, and apparently just making it out of the Qualifier wasn’t enough. They dropped their first two matches of pool play, first a 2-1 (17-21, 21-15, 10-15) loss to top seed Dalhausser/Rosenthal of the USA, then another three-set heartbreaker (17-21, 21-19, 13-15) to Germans Walkenhorst/Windscheif. Their final match of the day was another one that went the distance, this time with the Canucks pulling out a win against Bockermann/Urbatzka (21-18, 17-21, 15-8) also from Germany. They will play Plavins/Solovejs from Latvia at 9:00 a.m. PT.
Melissa Humana-Paredes and Taylor Pischke were the lone women’s team to advance from pool play. Coming out of the qualifier, the youngest Canadian had a doozy of a pool. They opened with a character building loss (10-21, 22-20) to Lima/Fernanda of Brazil, then a tough 2-1 loss (22-20, 21-15, 15-10) to Ludwig/Sude of Germany. Just like Josh and Sam, they got the Germans the second time around, defeating Mersmann/Schneider 2-1 (21-15, 19-21, 15-11). They can’t seem to get away from those Germans though, as they take on Holtwick/Semmler at Noon PT.
Maverick Hatch and Christian Redmann were centimetres away from moving on as well. They opened play with a match on Centre Court against hometown favourites Gibb/Patterson, falling 16-21, 15-21. They followed that on Thursday barn-burner against Smedins/Samoilovs of Latvia, falling this time 2-1 (21-17, 16-21, 13-15). Their last match of pool play against Kapa/McHugh of Australia would determine who would move on. The Aussies stole the first, taking it 22-20, but Mav and Red bounced back with a 21-19 win. Unfortunately, after a few questionable calls and some lucky bounces for the Aussies, they fond themselves on the wrong side of a 15-11 score that would end their tournament.
It was a rough couple of days for the other two women’s teams of Sarah Pavan and Heather Bansley, as well as Jamie Broder and Kristina Valjas. Both teams failed to win a set, with Pavan/Bansley losing to Italy, Sweden, and the U.S., while Broder/Valjas failed to catch any breaks against China, the Netherlands, and Russia.