Rising stars Melissa Humana-Paredes, left, and Taylor Pischke have a chance to win Canada’s first-ever Pan Am Games medal in women’s beach volleyball on July 21 in the bronze medal match against Brazil.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
Even the competitors will tell you: Partnerships in beach volleyball can be a bit like marriages. There's give and there's take. There are ups and downs. For better or worse, any budding relationship needs time to develop, and the best news for the Canadian duo of Melissa Humana-Paredes and Taylor Pischke is they do have time on their side.
After a clear run through the early part of the draw at the Pan American Games women's beach volleyball tournament – four consecutive straight-set wins leading to a spot in the semi-final – the two rising stars hit their first bump in the tournament road on Sunday, suffering a three-set loss to a Cuban team that just overpowered them. That leaves Humana-Paredes and Pischke to play for a bronze medal Tuesday against Brazil, rather than for gold.
That may be disappointing to them, but they still have a chance to win Canada's first-ever Pan Am medal in women's beach volleyball.
And that bodes well for the future, since the two – both daughters of successful volleyball coaches who grew up following the gospel of bump, set and spike – are just 22. Most of the most successful women on tour are as much as a decade older than Pischke and Humana-Paredes. It takes time and experience to master the game, to know when to drive the ball hard or to play a more tactical game.
Pan Am Games medal standings, updated daily
Complementary skill sets are helpful, too, but the way a team works and flourishes – or fails and disappears – often stems from finding ways to get along – and getting along is more difficult after a loss than a victory.
"That's what's so exciting about beach volleyball and especially for us – because it is so tactical, you learn something every match," Pischke said. "There's a lot of strategy in beach volleyball – taking away their strongest shot and exploiting their weaknesses. That's pretty much what beach volleyball is. There are no subs, so you've got to figure it out, if there's something you're struggling with."
Pischke's father, Garth, is the long-time men's volleyball coach at the University of Manitoba who, in 1976 and 1984, played for Canada's men's Olympic team. Humana-Paredes's father, Hernan, who is from Chile, coached Canada's long-time men's beach volleyball pair, John Child and Mark Heese, to a bronze medal at the 1996 Games in Atlanta.
Humana-Paredes, the International Volleyball Federation's reigning rookie of the year, joked that their partnership is like "an arranged marriage." Pischke noted how their fathers "knew each other and they knew we were around the same age and they thought it would be a good idea if we tried a tournament. We did and we won it right away. So there was chemistry from the start, and we've been playing together ever since – it's been four years."
Not every sport in the Pan Am Games enables female athletes to earn a living professionally, but beach volleyball does – provided you reach its highest echelons. There is an international professional tour, which they will rejoin in mid-August in Long Beach, Calif.
"There are about 10 Grand Slams on the world tour, and every Grand Slam has prize money of $500,000," Pischke said. "That's split among the teams, obviously, but winners are getting $60,000 split. You definitely can make a living, especially with sponsorships and stuff. If you're good, you're making money. If you're bottom of the barrel, you're not."
The duo's ambition is to ultimately qualify for the Olympics. Given their youth, that may not be realistic for Pischke and Humana-Paredes in 2016: They are currently ranked 17th in the world, but a distant third in Canada behind world No. 2 Heather Bansley and Sarah Pavan and No. 6 Jamie Lynn Broder and Kristina Valjas. But if they can stick together, Humana-Paredes and Pischke have a good shot at the Tokyo Games in 2020.
In the meantime, they are hoping to move up steadily through the ranks.
"You keep improving and improving," Pischke said. "The court awareness gets better – over the years, you just seem to get better."
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