Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson suffered their second loss of the Olympics on Saturday, enduring a straight-set upset (21-14, 22-20) to ninth-ranked Latvia in beach volleyball action.
Despite the loss, Canada’s hopes of grabbing a medal still remain intact, albeit a likely uphill battle against stronger opponents with Latvia and Switzerland nabbing the higher seeds in Pool D.
Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson will advance to the lucky loser round and will face Czechia at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT on Saturday.
The two Canadians struggled to contain Latvia in the early going of Saturday’s opening set, surrendering five unanswered points.
Canada, ranked fourth in the tournament, surrendered 13 kills to Latvia’s Graudiņa and Samoilova while authoring just a trio of digs in the first set.
Despite their early struggles, the Toronto natives were able to slip back into the match and keep Latvia’s bid at creating rallies in check throughout the middle frame.
On the men's side, Canada's Samuel Schachter and Daniel Dearing were forced to forfeit their lucky loser match with Chile on Saturday following an injury to Dearing in the early goings of the first set.
