Silver lining for Binstock and Schachter on FIVB World Tour

Gustavo Carvalhaes and Saymon Barbosa of Brazil got the better of the Canadians in the final on Saturday night 2-0 (22-20, 21-8), but otherwise Binstock and Schachter had an impressive tournament.
 
"We're definitely upset about losing in the finals, as we didn't play with the same rhythm and aggression we had all tournament, however, we are very happy with our overall performance," said Binstock. "We have been playing consistently well over the last few tournaments. This had a ‘home’ tournament feel to it, in the sense that it was the closest world tour event to Canada and our parents/families drove down to watch us play, so it was extra special to do well here." 
 
In their only previous meeting, Binstock and Schachter defeated Guto and Saymon last summer at the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam.
 
Earlier on Saturday, Binstock and Schachter had to knock out fellow Canadians Grant O’Gorman (Scarborough, ON) and Sam Pedlow (Barrie, ON) in the play-offs, which they did in a three-set battle, and then Binstock and Schachter took down the American pair of Lucena/Dalhausser in the semi-finals.
 
Pedlow and O’Gorman come away with a fifth ranking from this event. Chaim Schalk (Red Deer, AB) and Ben Saxton (Calgary), and Cam Wheelan (Barrie) and Mike Plantinga (Langley, BC) also finished in the top ten. Fellow Canadians Christian Redmann and Felipe Humana-Paredes ended the tournament ranked 17th.
 
Canada also had five women’s teams entered in the Cincinnati Open. Sarah Pavan (Kitchener, ON) and Heather Bansley (Waterdown, ON), and Jamie Broder (Victoria, BC) and Kristina Valjas (Toronto) both finished in the fifth slot. Julie Gordon (Barrie, ON) and Brandie Wilkerson (Toronto), and Melissa Humana-Paredes (Toronto) and Taylor Pischke (Winnipeg, MB) were 17th; and Camille Saxton (Calgary) with Rachel Cockrell (Winnipeg) finished 25th.
 
Americans Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross won the women’s event.

Next week, the FIVB World Tour returns to Russia for the FIVB Moscow Grand Slam (May 24-29). The final Olympic qualifying event on the FIVB World Tour will be the FIVB Hamburg Major Series in Germany (June 7-12).

For more on the FIVB World Tour, see www.fivb.org

The provisional Olympic rankings can be found here:

 
Volleyball Canada media contact:
Jackie Skender
E-mail: jskender@volleyball.ca
Phone: 613.794.7676

Photo: FIVB