Toronto, Canada, November 30, 2012 – Canada's Olympic men's beach volleyball team of Josh Binstock and Martin Reader playing with different partners, were both eliminated on Friday at the FIVB World Cup Final Canadian team trials.
In the first semifinal at the indoor Beach High Performance Facility at Downsview Park in Toronto, Binstock and Maverick Hatch lost to Christian Redmann and Matt Zbyszewski 21-18, 19-21, 15-11. The winning pair had only played once together before in competition and came into Friday’s match with five practices under their belts.
‘’We felt we did well,’’ Redmann said. ‘’We knew it was going to be a choppy match and we were going to have to scrap it out. Matt is a very easy partner to adapt to and tonight we definitely would not have won this match without his quality serving.’’
In the second semifinal, Schaim Chalk and Ben Saxton beat Reader and Sam Schachter, a world junior champion, 21-16, 21-14.
“We were confident going into the match,” Chalk, who won a NORCECA (North, Central America and Caribbean) event this past September with Saxton, said. “We have really good chemistry and a great ability to rebound after a missed play.”
The final will take place on Saturday.
On the women’s side, Liz Maloney and Heather Bansley of Toronto have already locked up the World Cup Final spot. They were Canada’s top-ranked international team all season.
The FIVB World Cup final will be held in Brazil in 2013 and will offer more than $300,000 in cash prizes.
The Trials are streamed live on the
www.volleyballsourcemag.com website.