Pavan, Humana-Paredes eliminated in beach volleyball quarters at Gstaad Major

A rare dip in play by Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes cost the Canadians a chance to win another beach volleyball medal.

The reigning world champions fell 2-1 in sets to Brazil's Rebecca Cavalcanti and Ana Patricia Silva in quarter-final play on Saturday at the Gstaad Major Five Star tournament in Switzerland.

"My side-out wasn't consistent enough to compete; I was making too many errors on the side-out and we weren't turning over a lot of ball," Humana-Paredes, from Toronto, told Volleyball Canada.

"It's going to be great to share everything we've been working toward with our Canadian fans," said Pavan, who hails from Kitchener, Ont. "It's the only FIVB event in North America this year, so that's really special."

Until Saturday, Pavan and Humana-Paredes were unbeaten this week in Switzerland.

Measure of revenge

They arrived fresh off a gold-medal win over April Ross and Alexandra Klineman of the United States on July 6 at the world beach volleyball championship in Germany.

It represented Canada's first world beach volleyball title and secured Pavan and Humana-Paredes a spot at the 2020 Olympics. Humana-Paredes will be making her Summer Games debut while Pavan was fifth at the 2016 Olympics in Rio with then-partner Heather Bansley.

"This was one of our biggest goals, the highlight for our season, and I think we're on the right track [for the Olympics]," Pavan said earlier this month.

Pavan and Humana-Paredes had lost to Ross and Klineman in May in the final of the Itapema Open in Brazil.

In their third season together, Pavan and Humana-Paredes also recorded Canada's best finish at worlds in 2017 when they placed fourth.

A busy schedule the next five weeks will prevent the Canadian duo from playing at the upcoming Pan Am Games in Peru as they will be Japan at an Olympic test event.

Other Canadian results at the Gstaad Major:

• Brandie Wilkerson/Heather Bansley, 9th(women)
• Sam Pedlow/Sam Schachter, 9th(men)
• Ben Saxton/Grant O'Gorman, 17th