MONTREAL — Ontario duo Sam Schachter and Jonathan Pickett pulled off a major upset to reach the men’s semifinals at the Elite16 beach volleyball stop in Montreal. The 39th-ranked Canadians downed world No. 1s Jacob Hölting Nilsson and Elmer Andersson 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) in quarterfinal action Saturday at Parc Jean-Drapeau. Schachter of Richmond Hill, Ont., and Pickett of Wiarton, Ont., also ousted Austria’s Alexander Horst and Paul Pascariuc earlier in the day. “I don’t think we did anything crazy or exceptional, we didn’t have as many flashy plays as in the other games … we just played good, basic volleyball at a really good level and were consistent. That was the difference today,” said Schachter, of beating the top-ranked team. They’ll face Brazil’s Renato Andrew Lima de Carvalho and André Stein in Sunday morning’s semifinal. Later Saturday, Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson kept their hopes of a three-peat in the FIVB Beach Pro Tournament alive with a 22-20, 21-18 win over 2025 world champions Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka of Latvia in the quarterfinals. The Canadians had more blocks and digs than their rivals. They advance to Sunday’s semifinals where they’ll play Thamela Coradello and Victoria Lopes of Brazil, who defeated the American combo of Julia Donlin and Lexy Denaburg 21-17, 13-21, 18-16. Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson claimed the 2023 and 2025 titles, winning Olympic silver in between. “We are going to watch the video of them (Brazil) and see what they are doing well and see what we did well against them and bring that into tomorrow,” said Humana-Paredes, commenting on the fact they met and beat this team during pool play. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 22, 2026.
