Canada sets sights on multiple beach volleyball medals with two duos in Tokyo Olympic quarterfinals

Opinion

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This article was published 02/08/2021 (1501 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TOKYO—Like the bulk of the venues at these Olympics, the beach volleyball stadium Shiokaze Park sits mostly empty as the competition plays out on its sandy focal point.

There remain vestigial touches of the era of raucous full houses. There’s still an in-stadium DJ, equipped with two laptops and a booming sound system triggering a new snippet of thumping tuneage after every point. And there’s still a hype-man PA announcer offering over-the-top pre-match player introductions before an incessant stream of in-match commentary.

On Monday morning here, Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes heard her name called. Dutifully on cue, she jogged from the stadium’s wings onto the sun-soaked sand. And as she did, she smiled and waved with both hands, apparently acknowledging the non-existent applause of the non-existent throngs.

“She’s visualizing the full crowd,” said Sarah Pavan, Humana-Paredes’s partner.

To which Human-Parades kindly offered a clarification.

“We do have a little pod (of spectators) up there that I’m waving to. I’m not waving to the empty seats,” Humana-Parades said. “We have a little group.”

Indeed, Canada’s top duo, the defending world champions in the sport, did have a pod of support. Canada’s cheering section at Monday’s round-of-16 win over Spain was perhaps a half-dozen strong. And Humana-Parades, to illustrate the intimacy of the gathering, began to reel off a roll call of those in attendance, all of which she knew by name — a collection of training partners, support staff and Marnie McBean, Canada’s chef de mission, who’s been the country’s most reliable roving cheerleader at these Games.

“It’s actually kind of nice to be able to see where they are. We see them clapping,” Humana-Paredes said. “After long rallies, you can feel that energy, even though it is quite empty.”

Thankfully Pavan and Humana-Paredes supplied their own energy on Monday, dispatching Spain’s Elsa Baquerizo McMillan and Liliana Fernández Steiner in a tidy 38 minutes, by scores of 21-13, 21-13, to advance to Tuesday’s quarterfinals.

If the match had a defining characteristic, beyond the strangeness of the setting, it was Pavan’s dominance of the net. Not only did she pose a constant threat as a hitter. Pavan was murder as a blocker, scoring seven points off blocks to Spain’s one. If the Canadian team said it prides itself on its defensive acumen — and on the video study of opponents in which it partakes before each of these high-stakes Olympic matches — the match also illustrated how Canada has consistently turned defence into offence in this tournament, largely thanks to Pavan’s above-the-net excellence. In five Olympic outings so far, Pavan has racked up 29 blocking points to her opponents’ combined five.

“It’s a big advantage to have a big blocker,” said Baquerizo McMillan. “There’s balls that (Pavan’s) going to win just because — well, she’s very good, but she’s very tall.”

Pavan is six-foot-five. Baquerizo McMillan and Fernández Steiner are five-foot-11 and five-foot-10, respectively. In a sport where size can matter, Canada stacks up favourably.

“Now we are little in the tour. We used to be (tall). And now we’re, like, tiny,” Baquerizo McMillan said.

Not that the game can’t be won in other, less-towering ways. When Pavan wasn’t able to get a piece of Spain’s attacks on Monday, the five-foot-10 Humana-Paredes was reliably there as Canada’s second line of defence, chipping in a match-high 10 digs, emerging from the match with her skin encrusted with sand.

“I definitely wouldn’t want to be on the other side of Sarah,” Humana-Paredes said. “As a teammate, (Pavan’s blocking is) the best thing ever. It’s, like, my favourite thing. She’s just so good at what she does and she makes my job really easy. So knowing the space that she’s taking and her presence and her dominance, I know has such a huge impact during the game. She makes me look really good.”

Pavan shook her head at the praise.

“Are you shaking your head?” Humana-Paredes said, smiling at her teammate. “It’s honestly my favourite thing. It also makes the rallies a lot quicker, which is great.”

Pavan concurred: “Especially in this heat. It’s like, ‘Whew.’ Don’t have to run anywhere.”

Baquerizo McMillan and Fernández Steiner, who were competing in a third straight Olympics together — and who had defeated Pavan and Humana-Paredes in their only previous meeting a couple of years back — tipped their visors to the Canadians.

“Right now they’re a very consistent team. They’ve been struggling a little bit, but their low is like fifth place. Their top is gold,” Baquerizo McMillan said. “So they’re a very, very stable team right now on the world tour. I think they’ve gained confidence and they’re mentally very stable. So I don’t know if two years ago we were lucky.”

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The win was the Canadian duo’s fourth straight of the tournament without dropping a single set and it moved them into Tuesday’s quarterfinal round against Australia’s Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar. With eight teams still standing in the race for the medals, Humana-Parades and Pavan pointed out that Canada is the only country with two teams remaining. The Toronto-based pairing of Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson pulled off a compelling upset on Sunday by coming from a set down to beat the U.S. side of Sarah Sponcil and Kelly Claes in a three-set barnburner.

“Normally at this stage you see two Americans, two Brazilians. You’re seeing two Canadians now,” Humana-Parades said. “I think that says a lot about our program and our federation. And I think as a country we should be really proud of where we are in beach volleyball.”

Should both Canadian teams win their quarterfinal ties — Bansley and Wilkerson meet Latvia’s Tīna Graudiņa and Anastasija Kravčenoka next — you won’t be seeing two Canadians in the gold-medal match. The teams wearing the maple leaf are on a collision course for an all-Canadian semifinal. If it happens, one can only assume there’ll be thousands of compatriots watching and cheering somewhere, even if it won’t be here. Pavan and Humana-Paredes will make do.

“I think Sarah and I are very good at sharing the moments with each other. I think we’ve done that forever. We really kind of celebrate each other and bring the energy for each other,” Humana-Paredes said. “So (an empty stadium) isn’t unusual for me. It would be nice to have the vibrations and the energy and stuff, but I think we’re doing just fine, and we’re creating our own.”

Dave Feschuk is a Toronto-based sports columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @dfeschuk