Wilkerson, Humana-Paredes sweep 5 teams to capture 1st beach volleyball title together

Four months ago, they're first Beach Pro Tour event as volleyball partners ended in a quarterfinal loss. On Sunday, in only their seventh tournament together, Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes became champions for the first time.

The third-seeded Canadians won 12 sets in a row and posted their fifth consecutive sweep to capture the women's title over Switzerland's Esmee Bobner and Zoe Verge-Depre at the Challenger event in Jurmala, Latvia.

Wilkerson completed a 21-17, 21-17 victory with a monster block, one of her five in the match.

"I'm so happy," she said in a story posted to the Volleyball World website. "I had the best time playing with Melissa. She is the ultimate superstar.

This team has been working hard, so it's so good to see it [lead to] a gold medal."

On June 4, the Toronto duo won a bronze at the Ostrava Elite16 tournament in the Czech Republic.

For Humana-Paredes, Sunday's title victory was her second straight in Jurmala after beating Brazil's Bárbara Seixas and Carol Solberg a year ago with then-partner Sarah Pavan to end a two-plus year drought.

Pavan and Humana-Paredes ended their five-year beach volleyball partnership three months later, with the latter subsequently paired with Wilkerson last October by Volleyball Canada as the governing body looked ahead to the Paris Olympics next summer.

Before partnering, Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes advanced to the final of the AVP Pro Tour's Chicago Open last Sept. 4 in their professional beach volleyball debut. They lost two sets to one to rising American stars Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth before Wilkerson split with her partner Sophie Bukovec, who was nursing an injury but watching the match in Chicago.

Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes were teammates in