Until last night, Sarah Pavan had never played a professional beach volleyball match without Heather Bansley by her side. With Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson winning the yesterday's country quota match at the Swatch World Tour Finals over Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes 23-21, 21-13, Pavan is now 0-1 without her former partner of four years.

Winning that first set really put the pressure on them. We got an early lead in the second set and just wanted to keep that momentum going.

Pavan and Bansley broke up after taking fifth in Rio. The pair of Canadian Olympians, who formed a partnership in 2013, earned a wildcard bid into the season-ending World Tour Finals in Toronto together, but they choose not to alter their plans of breaking up post-Olympics in order to play as team. Instead, Pavan paired up with Humana-Paredes -- with whom she intends to make a run at Tokyo -- and Bansley picked up Wilkerson.

In the head-to-head battle for a spot in the tournament, which awards $100,000 to the first-place finisher, Bansley and Wilkerson won in straight sets.

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"Winning that first set really put the pressure on them," Bansley said. "We got an early lead in the second set and just wanted to keep that momentum going."

Bansley and Wilkerson will compete in Pool D of the Swatch World Tour Finals main draw, which starts this morning. Italy's Marta Menegatti and Laura Giombini and Germany's Chantal Laboureur and Julia Sude are the other teams in pool D.

Click here to see the schedule of matches at the Swatch World Tour Finals.