Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson win Huntington Beach Open in pre-Olympic showdown

In a possible Olympics preview the Canadian team beat U.S. standouts Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss in three sets Sunday afternoon for the title.

HUNTINGTON BEACH — They collapsed together in an embrace under the beating sun, the Canadian duo stepping into Huntington Beach and knocking off all comers, Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson’s Olympic statement made and stamped upon the sands of Southern California.

As swarms of fans continued to flock to the bleachers atop the AVP Huntington Beach Open Sunday afternoon, Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson dispatched the best and brightest the United States had to offer. First came Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng, the USC alumni and reigning Huntington Beach champions, their option-offense trickery handily overwhelmed. Next came Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss, the former LSU teammates throwing the entire kitchen at Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson across three scintillating sets.

In a few months, they’d all be hopping on a flight to Paris, basking in the afternoon shadow of the Eiffel Tower on a world stage on the Champ De Mars. But with all the promise of the United States’ two star pairs, Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson left the loudest mark on domestic soil, the Canadians finishing off Kloth and Nuss 2-1 (23-21, 18-21, 15-13) on Sunday to win the women’s bracket at the Huntington Beach Open.

“With these girls here, last two teams, they’re in there with us, we’re expecting to play them at the Olympic Games,” Wilkerson said, a few minutes after the match. “So I think we’re all just fighting for it.”

They won that brutal fight on Sunday, Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson coming all the way back with four straight points in the final set after Nuss and Kloth seemed to have a stranglehold. Following a couple kills, Humana-Paredes dropped in a crucial ace, setting up an errant shot from Nuss that sealed a jubilant comeback.

It was a measure of redemption at Huntington Beach after a disappointing 2023 showing, when Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson finished in a distant tie for fifth as Cheng and Hughes took the crown. And as the two popped a bottle of champagne across the sands, a smattering of Canadian fans — a mix of local residents and natives who’d traveled all the way down from Montreal — lingered and clapped in patriotic glee.

“Knowing that we have their support from far and near is incredible,” Humana-Paredes said postgame. “And we’re just hoping to keep inspiring and growing the sport, not just in Canada but all over the world.”

“I think this is, like, the evolution of the game,” she continued. “It’s going forward.”

Indeed, swarms flocked to the stands above the main court on Sunday afternoon for the women’s final, spilling up onto the jetty at Huntington Beach. Kids packed shoulder-to-shoulder upon the pier, threading limbs narrowly through the railing for a comfortable vantage point to the show below. There is more on the line now, by definition, to this two-decades-old mainstay of Huntington Beach: the winner would earn the first berth in the all-new AVP League, set to hold a draft later in the summer.

And playing for that glory, a stout field gradually thinned over the course of the weekend. Reigning Olympic gold medalists April Ross and Alix Klineman, playing their first tournament together since becoming mothers in the past year, won their first match back but were quickly bounced. Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles, who made the finals at Huntington last year, forfeited their semifinal match to Kloth and Nuss after Scoles suffered an abdominal strain.

It ended up working out somewhat in Scoles’ favor, however: the 26-year-old USC alumna had planned a small wedding ceremony for Sunday night at 5 p.m., the loss giving her plenty of time to take the altar.

“The plan today was called, ‘Operation: Be Late to my Own Wedding,’” Scoles laughed afterwards. “I failed.”

Kloth and Nuss, then, were matched up for a second time against Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson, who they’d played earlier in the weekend and beat in three sets. Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson, however, paraded through the consolation bracket before dispatching Hughes and Cheng.

Their reunion with Kloth and Nuss in the final pitted sheer power against precision. Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes delivered spikes shot out of a cannon, while 5-foot-6 knuckleballer Nuss painted the edges of the court with highly-calculated attacks. Momentum changed hands rapidly, the Canadian pair taking a big third-set lead before Kloth went on a run at the net, only for Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes to seal the win.

“There’s a lot of respect between all four of us,” Wilkerson said, “and I think we push each other to be better, which is exciting and good for the sport.”

And if they step on the makeshift sands in Paris to see Nuss and Kloth on the other side of the net, yet again?

“You can probably expect another battle like those two,” Humana-Paredes grinned. “I think it’s always a battle with them.”