Canadians Pavan & Humana with hot start in Moscow
MOSCOW, Russia, August 9, 2018 – Top seeds Sarah Pavan and
Melissa Humana-Paredes lived up to their billing as first seeds
at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Moscow 4-Star tournament
when they won two from two on the opening day of the main draw
on Thursday.
The Canadians started by beating Russia’s Alexandra Moiseeva and
Ekaterina Syrtseva 2-0 (21-16, 21-10), and then ensured that
they would go straight into the second knockout round when they
defeated Finland’s Taru Lahti and Anniina Parkkinen 2-0 (21-19,
21-14).
“Anytime you win your pool is amazing because the field is
getting stronger and stronger, so it’s never easy to win the
pool,” Pavan said.
“We played a team that hasn’t been on tour for a while this
morning and that is a little scary, and Finland have been
playing well. It was close at the beginning and I was proud of
how we could pull away at the end of both sets.”
Pavan and Humana-Paredes have already won two World Tour golds
at the Gstaad 5-Star and Xiamen 4-Star tournaments, as well as
claiming the inaugural Commonwealth Games beach volleyball gold
at Gold Coast 2018.
Their success has ensured that they will be competing in the
final tournament of the 2017-18 season, the Hamburg 2018 FIVB
World Tour Finals that pits the top 10 ranked teams against each
other.
Some of the qualified teams chose to miss the Moscow 4-Star,
opting to rest and train, but for Pavan and Humana-Paredes
competing in the Russian capital gives them the chance to ensure
they are in top form in Hamburg.
“I think it is nice we are able to play and get these two ‘w’s
today,” Humana-Paredes said. “I don’t think we’re at peak form.
I don’t think we’re at our highest form for sure, there’s a long
way to go.
We’re getting there.” |