In Their Own Words: Bansley and Pavan Discuss Canadian Breakup

  0 Braden Keith | September 12th, 2016 | News, Pro, Pro Indoor, Video

2016 FIVB BEACH VOLLEYBALL WORLD TOUR FINALS

The big off-the-beach story in the run-up to the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals, which kick off officially on Wednesday in Toronto, has been the breakup of the home country’s top pair of Heather Bansley and Sarah Pavan.

The two advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2016 Olympic Games this summer, but an 0-2 loss to the eventual champions from Germany would be the last competitive match they’d play together. The pair has announced that going forward, they’ll each switch partners going forward. Pavan told press that they “maxed out on our capacity as a pair,” which happened to be the most successful year in Canadian beach volleyball history.

“Obviously there are many reasons and I really don’t need to get into all of them, but a big one is that the goal is always to win tournaments and be on top of the podium and I really think we kind of maxed out on our capacity as a pair,” Pavan told the FIVB on Thursday. “And in four seasons we were never able to be on top of the podium.
“I think for both of us a switch is the right thing and it will give us an opportunity to try to win on our own with different partners. People might not be able to understand but as an athlete you want to be the best. Maybe we will have a better chance of reaching that goal with different partners. Going through four years and never winning we needed to make a change to try to make that happen.”

That leaves an interesting dynamic for this week’s tournament. The decision was made before it was even known that their home country would host the World Tour final, but now the two, with their new partners, will face a “play-in match” on Tuesday to see who will advance to the main draw of the tournament as the Canadian representative.

The winners go into Group D of the women’s tournament.

Bansley will pair with Brandie Wilkerson and Pavan now will play with Melissa Humana-Paredes at 5:00 Toronto (Canadian Eastern Time) for advancement.

Now, the two have shared the story of the breakup in their own words. Watch the video above, courtesy FIVB.

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About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of VolleyMob.com. Braden's first foray into sports journalism came in 2010, when he launched a swimming website called The Swimmers' Circle. Two years later, he joined SwimSwam.com as a co-founder. Long huge fans of volleyball, when Braden and the SwimSwam partners sought an opportunity to …

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