Summer/Ross stun Canada to reach the semifinals

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Summer Ross (left) and Brooke Sweat celebrate during their epic win over Canada

The dream of an American gold medal lives on for the host country after Brooke Sweat and Summer Ross stormed into Saturday’s Fort Lauderdale Major semfinals.

The duo finished just outside of the medals here 12 months ago, losing to Chantal Laboureur and Julia Sude in the bronze medal match.

Now the Americans are just one win away from their first Beach Volleyball Major Series final after their impressive 22-20, 25-23 win over Canadians Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes.

“We’re going for bronze now!” joked Ross afterwards. “The home crowd helped get us through it. We had a game plan and trusted each other. It was an amazing game and so much fun.”

The duo face Brazilians Barbara Seixas and Fernanda Berti Alves in Saturday’s semifinal hoping to avenge a defeat in January in the four-star tournament in The Hague.

“We lost against them in the Netherlands and it was pretty back and forth,” Brooke told us afterwards. “It’s always good against Brazil, it’s always heated, so it should be great game.

“But we’re a better team than we were 12 months ago – it’s not so much the skills but more the mental aspect of the game where we’ve improved. It was easy for us to get down, especially in big moments. Now we’re able to stay upbeat and positive in our matches and it’s helping.”

Fernanda (left) and Barbara were on fire as they reached the last four

Barbara Seixas and Fernanda Berti Alves are eying their first podium finish on the World Tour in seven attempts after they cruised past Czech duo Marketa Sluková and Barbora Hermannová in their quarterfinal. The Brazilians needed just 33 minutes to storm to a comfortable 21-14, 21-15 victory.

The semifinal will be live on the Red Bull Beach Arena at 11.15am EST with the gold medal match set for 4pm EST.

You’ll be able to watch all the action live as it unfolds live on BeachStream. Good luck tomorrow, girls!