RIO DE JANIERO—Canada wins. Canada loses. And professionalism rules the day.

Those seeking the intrigue and sentimentality of a Canada-on-Canada elimination match in Olympic beach volleyball were left wanting here Saturday because the four women have one goal in mind and the colour of the bikinis on the other side of the net matter not a lick.

“We are two separately functioning entities, we don’t really hang out normally so I honestly think nothing was different,” Sarah Pavan said after she and Heather Bansley eliminated Kristina Valjas and Jamie Broder, 21-16, 21-11 to advance to Sunday’s quarter-finals against Germany.

“It is unfortunate. I know we both wanted to go far and we obviously didn’t want to match up so early but we did and once that happened, we were like, ‘this is just another team in our way.’ ”

The women’s teams meet every now and then in the run-of-the-mill global tournaments each season so there was not a lot new; even adding in the fact these are the Olympics didn’t allow for any sentimentality.

“We play on tour all year against each other so it’s not that unusual, we do meet up in tournaments and it’s just another team,” said Broder of Victoria. “It’s unfortunate we met up so early, I think we’re both very strong and had the capabilities to go very far in this tournament but, that’s kind of the way it goes.”

Pavan and Valjas were university teammates and even that bond didn’t create anything special. They didn’t chat before the match, didn’t have any noticeable interaction out of the ordinary during the time on the court and weren’t going to get together later Saturday to lament the fact one team knocked the other out of Olympic medal contention.

“This was both of our goals and I know we both aspire to do very well here,” Pavan said. “Does it make it different? I can’t speak for them but for us, we’re approaching it like a normal tournament, one game at a time. We didn’t necessarily put more weight on this match that we did any other match.”

Added Valjas: “No, it was pretty much seclusion until we met on the court out there. We take it very seriously, we want to win, whatever it takes. I think it adds maybe a little bit of competition, a little bit of extra grit.”

With waves gently lapping the storied Copacabana beach just behind the 10,000-seat stadium, with a sun-drenched crowd enjoying 23 C weather on a windless afternoon, Pavan and Bansley took just 40 minutes to dispatch Broder and Valjas in straight sets.

“We wanted to first be on top of our pool and we did that in our group play and that’s from playing really consistent side-out volleyball and our block defence is always really strong for us and we’ve relied heavily on that to score some points for us,” Bansley said.

“We’re feeling good and just feeling consistent and we want to keep playing the way we’re playing.”

Pavan of Kitchener, Ont., and Bansley of Waterdown, Ont., are trying to become the first Canadian women to win an Olympic beach volleyball medal, and only the second team from Canada to ever reach the podium.

John Child and Mark Heese won a bronze medal when the sport made its debut at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

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“They are playing awesome,” Toronto’s Valjas said of Pavan-Bansley. “They’re dialed in and obviously very focused and they came very prepared for today because it’s a mind battle as much as it is a physical battle out there, especially when you’re playing your own country.

“I’m sure they’ll go far.”