Dutch women counting on home advantage to win medals

The three times the Netherlands hosted the CEV EuroBeachVolley, a women’s team from the home country played in the final and that’s going to be one of the motivations to the four Dutch duos entered in this year’s edition of the tournament.

With matches starting on Tuesday in Arnhem, Apeldoorn and The Hague, which will host the finals on Saturday, the home teams will do their best to please the home fans with a medal, repeating what happened three times in the past.

The EuroBeachVolley first went to the Netherlands in 2006 and the host country took silver with Rebekka Kadijk and Merel Mooren. In 2012, the home fans got to celebrate gold with Sanne Keizer and Marleen van Iersel. Keizer would go on to celebrate another home gold in 2018, this time with Madelein Meppelink.

Of the four Dutch teams entered in the event, Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon and undoubtedly the best equipped to give the home fans a medal. Coming from a ninth-place finish at the Paris Olympics, the two have made it to the podium twice at the EuroBeachVolley, taking silver in 2021 and bronze in 2022.

Based in Apeldoorn for the pool play stage, Stam and Schoon will have Germany’s Margareta Kozuch/Sarah Schneider, Italy’s Claudia Scampoli/Margherita Bianchin and Ukraine’s Maryna Hladun/Tetiana Lazarenko as their first opponents in Pool B.

EuroBeachVolley - Women's Match Schedule

Wies Bekhuis and Brecht Piersma are strong candidates to be the dark horses of this year’s EUroBeachVolley. Aged 22 and 21 respectively, the two have enjoyed good results at the international level lately – Piersma even got a fifth in her EuroBeachVolley debut last year, with Desy Poiesz.

The two will start the tournament Arnhem, playing Latvia’s Tina Graudina/Anastasija Samoilova, Poland’s Jagoda Gruszczynska/Aleksandra Wachowicz and France’s Lézana Placette/Alexia Richard in Pool C.

Piersma’s former parter Poiesz will also be in action this year, joining forces with Mila Konink. The fourth Dutch team in the tournament will be formed by Emi van Driel and Kirsten Bröring.

In order to make it to the podium, the Dutch duos will have to overcome some of the best teams in the world, including two-time champions Graudina and Samoilova, German World Championship medalists Svenja Müller and Cinja Tillmann and Spanish rising stars Daniela Álvarez and Tania Moreno.