Gstaad Five Star – Beach Major Series
- Gstaad, Switzerland
- July 9-15, 2018
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- Schedule/Results
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Defending Gstaad Major champions No. 7 Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude had a match-point try on Sunday, but could not convert it, instead allowing three straight points to top seeded Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes/Sarah Pavan and settling for silver.
Humana-Paredes and Pavan each turned in a kill and Sude was whistled for a net touch to give the Canadians the 21-17, 12-21, 17-15 win, the title and the $40,000 paycheck.
The gold is the second Gstaad medal for Humana-Paredes/Pavan who finished third in 2017. It marks the third cowbell for Pavan, who also boasts a Gstaad medal from 2015, when she paired with fellow semifinalist Heather Bansley for the bronze.
Humana-Paredes/Pavan earned their second FIVB World Tour medal of 2018 and first since winning the Xiamen Four Star on April 22.
“It can’t get much better than that,” Humana-Paredes said. “It’s a great feeling to be able to come up here and to play some good volleyball. It’s been hard the last year, we had to do some serious work together and it has brought us a lot closer and we had to suffer a little bit and go through the struggle, and then embrace the struggle. We had some finishes we didn’t like and to be able to rebound from that and come back and stand on top of the podium speaks volumes and it’s so special.”
Laboureur/Sude were seeking their first FIVB gold since winning the Gstaad Major in 2017. The duo, which posted its best finish of 2018 with a runnerup effort at the Warsaw Four Star on July 1, earns $32,000 with the silver medal.
Humana-Paredes/Pavan made the final after rallying for a tiebreak win over No. 3 Agatha Bednarczuk/Eduarda ‘Duda’ Santos Lisboa of Brazil in the first semifinal (14-21, 21-12, 15-13).
Laboureur/Sude also had to make their way through a tiebreak victory to reach the championship match, upsetting No. 2 Heather Bansley/Brandie Wilkerson of Canada (25-27, 21-14, 18-16).
Bansley/Wilkerson rebounded with a straight set win over Agatha/Duda for the bronze to give Team Canada a second piece of Major hardware. The Canadians trailed 7-1 and 11-4 in Set 1 before rallying for the 21-19, 21-13 victory.
Canadians Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson earned Gstaad bronze
Bansley/Wilkerson earn their fourth medal of 2018, following gold at the Warsaw Four Star, silver at the Ostrava Four Star on June 24 and bronze at the Itapema Four Star. The team has placed in the top five in its last five tournaments.
Agatha/Duda’s loss ends a tradition of Brazilian success in Gstaad as the nation has put at least one team on the women’s podium each of the last three years, including gold medals in 2015 and 2016 and silvers in 2015 and 2017. All told, Brazilian pairs had put at least one team on the podium for 18 straight years in Gstaad, including nine women’s golds and eight men’s.
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