It was a 33-minute hello for Canada’s newly crowned FIVB World Beach Volleyball Champions Thursday.
Post-time was 1 p.m. at Northlands Park and Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes were quick study in finding their way to the winner’s circle against Kim Huber and Melina Hubscher of Switzerland.
Exempt from Wednesday’s qualifying at the first World Tour event in Canada since 2011, the two opened elimination play as the top seed of the tournament against the 32nd seed team that definitely came to play.
“It was a good young Swiss team that came out and pushed us to the limit in that first set,” said Humana-Paredes of their opening day on the sand in Edmonton.
“It took us a little while to get into the game but once we did, playing at centre court in front of a home crowd, it was smooth.
“It took us a little while to get comfortable but once we did, it went well.”
Huber and Hubscher were a tough out in the first set that ended up 21-19. But it was 21-13 in the second and over and out in 33 minutes for Pavan and Humana-Paredes
Due to the weather and the K-Days midway not opening until Friday, it wasn’t a massive crowd to welcome the first Canadian world champions in the history of beach volleyball.
But it was big enough to embrace them.
“We felt the love. It’s been really, really special here for us so far. It’s actually been a little humbling to experience the reaction to us for what we’ve done,” said Humana-Paredes of winning the world title 11 days earlier.
The Canadians advance against the American 16th seed entry of Kim DiCello and Kelly Reeves, 21-15 and 21-19 winners over the Italian entry Thursday, at 9 a.m. Friday in their second game of the tournament.
The Americans are a bit of a mystery to the top seeded world champions.
“They are a new team and we haven’t seen them play before,” she said.
If they win, they’ll get a bye from the next round but be back later in the day, likely at 7 p.m., for the beginning of the elimination bracket play leading to Sunday’s medal round.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
