Canada's Wilkerson, Humana-Paredes advance to semis at Montreal Elite16 beach volleyball tourney

Canada's Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes advanced to the Montreal Elite16 beach volleyball tournament semifinals with a 2-1 victory over World No. 3 Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth of the U.S. on Saturday.

The 26th-ranked Toronto duo clinched the first set 21-15 before dropping the second 14-21. The hosts won the tiebreaker 15-8 to improve to 4-1 in the tournament.

Humana-Paredes, 30, posted a game-high 26 points, with two coming from aces. Wilkerson, 31, tallied 14, including two aces and a block point.

"This tournament has challenged us. Every team is hard to play against," Humana-Paredes said. "We're still getting our footing together, to continually produce these performances, but we definitely belong here. There's no question in our mind."

WATCH l Canada tops U.S. in Montreal Elite16 quarterfinals:

The Canadians will face 2008 Beijing bronze medallist Xue Chen and fellow Olympian Xia Xinyi in the semifinals set for 11:30 a.m. ET on Sunday. The Chinese duo defeated Brazil's Agatha Bednarczuk and Rebecca Cavalcanti 2-0 on Saturday.

Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes beat 2nd-ranked Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes of the U.S. 2-1 (21-15, 14-21, 15-8) in the round of 12 earlier on Saturday in the first of two winning efforts against top3-ranked duos.

Fellow Canadians Sarah Pavan, 36, and Molly McBain, 25, were ousted after a 2-0 (13-21, 24-26) round-of-12 loss to Bednarczuk and Cavalcanti, finishing tied for ninth.

Pavan of Kitchener, Ont., and Toronto-native McBain teammed up earlier in 2023. Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes, the top-ranked Canadian duo, have been competing as a duo since October.

In men's play, the solo Canadian duo of Jake MacNeil and Alex Russell was eliminated in group play after three