Melissa & Brandie triumph on home sand

A three-set battle unfolded in the women’s final on Sunday with Melissa & Brandie, mastering a 2-1 (21-15, 16-21, 15-13) victory, cheered on by the fantastic Canadian fans on the stands. In the first set, they broke away with a 4-0 run and never looked back. In the second, however, Scoles & Flint bounced back convincingly to draw level and push the match to a tie-breaker resolution. In the third set, the lead went back and forth until Brandie’s monster block closed the match Canada’s way. The match winner was one of Brandie’s five kill blocks in the game. She also added an ace and 21 successful attacks towards a match-high 27 points, while Melissa produced 17 points, all in offence. Scoles & Flint registered 21 and 19 points, respectively.

“Oh, my gosh, this one will be in my memories forever. This is our first Elite16 gold together as a team, in front of a Canadian crowd with this much energy, this much love… This was the first time my family got to watch me play live, so there were a lot of firsts here; you couldn’t have written it up any better,” said Brandie after the end of the final. “It was a tough win. We had to battle in every single moment and it was beautiful! People are here at the Elite16 for a reason. It’s a gold medal match for a reason. It’s never going to be easy, but we stepped up and we proved ourselves.”

“We are proud of our performance. We played nine matches. Julia is just so resilient. It’s so fun to play next to her,” said USA’s Betsi Flint. “It was a battle all weekend and we are excited to be coming home with a silver medal.”

“I think the take-it-one-at-a-time mentality, knowing the every game could be our last, helped us go out there and have fun, to play the sport that we love and know that it’s a blessing and an opportunity. We had to give it our best. The outcome is the outcome, but we are grateful for how we played and getting the silver,” Julia Scoles added.