CHICAGO — That Canadian Olympians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson have turn out to be acquainted faces on the AVP, America’s skilled seashore volleyball collection. It been a win-win scenario for each.
The AVP will get one of many world’s greatest girls’s groups gracing its tournaments, elevating the general degree of competitors, and giving of us in Canada a compelling motive to comply with a cash-strapped tour that desperately wants extra followers.
Accordingly, there ought to be a very good turnout for the annual AVP Gold Sequence Chicago Open on Oak Avenue Seashore when the match begins Friday on the shores of Lake Michigan.
Melissa and Brandie, as they’re identified on the FIVB’s awkwardly named Volleyball World Seashore Professional Tour, profit from having extra occasions accessible to them with simpler journey, however ones that also afford world-class opposition. They’ll choose and select a schedule that may assist maximize their potential earnings whereas lowering their bills. The AVP’s Gold Sequence and the FIVB’s top-tier Elite16 pay the identical prize cash per occasion: $150,000.
This makes for a symbiotic relationship between the AVP and the crack Canadian workforce, significantly when the lightning-quick Humana-Paredes and the uber-athletic Wilkerson arguably are among the many hottest girls with American seashore volleyball followers.
Brandie, 31, has each USA and Canadian citizenship. Her dad is former Tulsa basketball standout Herb Johnson, who was picked by the Cleveland Cavaliers within the third spherical of the 1985 NBA Draft however performed his skilled ball abroad. Wilkerson debuted on the AVP in 2017 and has performed with American companions akin to Nicole Branagh, Brooke Sweat, Kelly Cheng, Sara Hughes and Zana Muno earlier than selecting up Humana-Paredes for the 2022 Chicago occasion. They completed second, dropping a tense three-setter within the finals to fast-rising Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss.
Melissa, 30, performed her first AVP match in 2018. She loved nice success defending behind the dominating block of 6-foot-5 Sarah Pavan, a fellow Canadian. They put their names on the pier by profitable the storied Manhattan Seashore Open in 2019, beating future Olympic gold medalists April Ross and Alix Klineman in a memorable three-set slugfest (16-14 within the third). That very same yr, Melissa and Sarah completed first within the FIVB World Championships in Hamburg, Germany, nipping Ross and Klineman within the gold-medal match 23-21, 23-21. The Canadian duo was the highest seed within the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, however have been shocked within the spherical of eight and wound up fifth.
Wilkerson additionally has been a big participant on the world stage. She, too, was a fifth-place finisher in Tokyo, teaming with the veteran Heather Bansley. Brandie and Sophie Bukovec (a key participant on USC’s seashore NCAA champions in 2016) have been the silver medalists within the 2022 World Championships in Rome, shedding within the title tussle to Brazil’s Duda and Ana Patricia.
Collectively in 2023, Melissa’s waterbug court docket protection and Brandie’s kangaroo hops have produced dynamic outcomes on the AVP and the world tour.
Within the U.S., they’ve a primary (the season opener on Miami Seashore), two seconds, and a fifth in 4 occasions. On the FIVB circuit, they’ve picked up gold medals in a second-tier Challenger in Latvia and in a top-level Elite16 on residence sand in Montreal. In qualifying for the Olympics on the world tour, Melissa and Brandie are sixth in whole factors, however third in common factors per match. The highest 17 in factors over a workforce’s greatest 12 occasions — the qualifying interval ends on June 9, 2024 — earn automated berths within the 2024 Paris Olympics, so the Canadians are in nice form.
In the meantime, the duty at hand for Melissa and Brandie is that this weekend’s AVP Chicago Gold Sequence. They’re seeded third in a loaded 16-team principal draw that advantages from elite American groups returning residence after our prime two within the Olympic standings — No. 1 seed Kloth-Nuss and second-seeded Cheng-Hughes — skipped the MBO to play in Germany. Stacked at No. 4 are Manhattan Seashore champions Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles.
The Canadians relish the problem. And because the AVP landed the favored streaming platform TSN+, followers of their residence nation can watch them on stadium court docket.
“The AVP is the best degree of seashore volleyball we are able to get apart from the FIVB,” Melissa famous. “That is the form of take a look at we’re in search of.
“You’ve got a number of prime groups on the planet right here. So to have the ability to get this type of competitors in to arrange you for the Olympics, to arrange you for the FIVB tournaments and simply put together you to compete and lift your degree, they’re essential.
“We actually take pleasure in taking part in AVPs for thus many various causes and certainly one of them is as a result of the extent is super-high. We’re excited to play right here. There aren’t any very easy matches. The extent of seashore volleyball on the AVP is the best it’s been shortly.”
Brandie echoed her accomplice’s enthusiasm: “I’m additionally an American, so it’s nice to play on the American tour to discover that facet of my household and my heritage, and simply symbolize myself.
“We’re not Crew Canada, we’re Brandie and Melissa. We are able to have a very good time. We are able to simply play and be free and put on cool outfits and simply have enjoyable. But in addition play world-class groups, which is a tremendous mixture. I’ve incredible sponsors right here who’re deeply embedded within the AVP Tour and the AVP is a tour we now have performed on for years, so it’s super-important to my profession and my development.”
“The fanbase is unimaginable,” Wilkerson added. “You actually construct relationships with loyal seashore volleyball followers. There are individuals right here who’re simply discovering the game. The extra the sport grows, the higher it’s for everybody.”
What may make seashore volleyball even higher for Melissa and Brandie is extra monetary help from the Canadian federation. They’ve been super ambassadors for the game and rank as respectable podium threats in Paris, but Canada’s volleyball governing physique doesn’t even pony up for the workforce’s worldwide air fare. That would appear a bare-minimum requirement for gamers who should journey the globe to qualify for the Olympics.
Brandie tackled the topic head-on, saying, “Monetary help is crucial. However, actually, with our federation, it’s a work-in-progress. It’s not excellent in any respect.”
She famous that “We acquired a month-to-month stipend, we get our coaches lined.”
“For 4 tournaments,” Melissa interjected.
“Sure, 4 tournaments,” Brandie mentioned. “We get a price range for some lodge bills. We don’t get our flights paid for. We purchase our personal flights. You may’t actually evaluate the help we obtain from the Canadian federation to what the U.S. gamers get from USA Volleyball.”
Then Melissa weighed in: “We’re out on the world tour competing towards the very best on the planet, profitable tournaments and representing our nation. We’re among the best groups on the planet, and our hope is that our success may result in extra curiosity in seashore volleyball in Canada and extra curiosity from potential sponsors. The Canadian federation then can be in a greater place to supply us extra help, not less than alongside the traces of what the American gamers obtain.”
That the AVP covers lodging for gamers in the primary attracts of Professional and Gold Sequence stops is one other incentive for Melissa and Brandie to carry their skills to our home tour.
Over the past yr, Melissa and Brandie have waged some memorable battles with Kloth and Nuss, who took the AVP by storm after they got here out of LSU in 2021 and have continued to enhance. Simply within the final 5 weeks, Kloth-Nuss topped the Canadians within the last of the AVP Atlanta Gold Sequence cease. However the LSU merchandise are simply a part of an inflow of pro-ready gamers from throughout the ranks of fast-growing NCAA seashore volleyball.
“The expertise degree on the AVP is simply getting greater with the advances made within the NCAA sport,” Melissa mentioned. “You’re seeing these faculty athletes coming onto the AVP and WINNING TOURNAMENTS. Immediately. After which approaching the world tour straight away and getting medals, so, yeah, the depth is there. It’s very deep on the AVP Tour and that solely makes the expansion of the game higher. It solely makes the expansion of our workforce, each workforce, higher, so it’s simply good to play towards good groups.”
After this weekend, the Canadian duo will play within the Paris Elite16 September 27-October 1 earlier than the FIVB World Championships in Tlaxcala, Mexico, October 6-15.
“The worlds have been our spotlight this yr, enormous by way of cash and factors,” Melissa mentioned. “From after we began scheduling again in January, that was the one we wished to be as ready for as attainable. We’re on that path. We simply hold getting higher, we’re heading in the right direction, and issues are coming collectively on the proper time. The worlds are all the time a problem. We each have had nice experiences there so we all know what it takes to battle all the best way for the entire week.”
An X-factor on the worlds could possibly be Klineman, who was granted a wild-card entry into the 48-team draw with MBO finalist Hailey Harward. May Klineman’s return from an injury- and pregnancy-related hiatus impact the race for america’ two Olympic berths, or is she leaping in too late?
“We’re all ready to see,” Melissa mentioned. “Good for Alix. She is a tremendous seashore volleyball participant. Will probably be cool to see her return.
“We’ve seen plenty of girls come again from having a child, and coming again stronger. I’m excited to play towards her once more. It was enjoyable competing towards her when she was with April (Ross). They have been a power collectively so I’m certain she can be main the best way with whomever she picks up.”
Click on right here for the Chicago AVP entry checklist.
