Beach volleyball pair Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes make Olympic final

The Canadian beach volleyball duo of Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes made the Olympic final by beating Switzerland's Nina Brunner and Tanja Huberli on Thursday. It's the first time a Canadian beach volleyball team has made an Olympic final.

Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes dropped the first set 21-14 before storming back to win the second set 22-20 and the tiebreaker set 15-12. It was the first loss of the Games for the Swiss pair and the first time in the event that they didn't win in straight sets.

Canada is guaranteed to take home its second-ever beach volleyball medal. The first came at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics when John Child and Mark Heese captured bronze in beach volleyball's official introduction as an Olympic sport.

Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes went 1-2 in pool play and had to play a "lucky loser" match against Czechia, which they won in straight sets. It's the first time in Olympics history that the winners of the lucky loser match have made the medal round.

This is the duo's second Olympics but first paired together. Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes made the quarterfinals in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with their respective partners but were eliminated in that round. The former York University teammates subsequently joined forces in 2022.

The Canadians will face either Brazil or Australia in the gold-medal match Friday at 4:30 p.m. ET.