PARIS – They stared at a match point against a team that hadn’t lost a set all week.

“Down the barrel,” Melissa Humana-Paredes quipped.

But she and Brandie Wilkerson never blinked, wriggled free and built a dramatic Olympic semifinal win 2-1 (14-21, 22-20, 15-12) over Swiss powerhouse Tanja Huberli and Nina Brunner on Thursday at Eiffel Tower Stadium. The comeback could rank as one of the greatest moments in the history of Canadian beach volleyball at the Summer Games – so far.