Great mix of youth and experience to steal the show in Montpellier

The 2024 edition of the CEV Beach Volley European Cup scheduled for October 10-13 in Montpellier, France, will feature an impressive number of players with a very remarkable resume as well as up-and-coming teams determined to make a name for themselves on the international stage. The event in southern France will be contested by as many as 16 clubs in each gender, thereby representing 15 National Federations from across Europe. 

As they will be trying to seize the crown claimed last year by their domestic rivals of Murov AzTerminal, Azerrail Baku have assembled a very competitive roster, including two-time EuroBeachVolley silver medal winner (in 2016 and 2019) Konstantin Semenov and another two transferred Russian-born players – Dmitrii Veretiuk (U19 World and U20 European champion in 2018) and Igor Velichko. Semenov represented Russia at three consecutive editions of the Olympic Games - in 2012, 2016, and at the postponed Tokyo Games in 2021. 

Semenov is not the only Olympian set to take to the court in Montpellier. This elite group also includes Austria’s veteran Alexander Huber, who competed at Rio 2016 and is due to represent Aloha Beachvolleyball Club Wörthersee together with other experienced players such as Christoph Dressler and Felix Friedl. The Austrians are likely to challenge for the podium – as much as Spain’s CVP Poniente Benidorm Alicante, whose dreams of glory will be carried by the Bello siblings – Javier, Joaquin, and Juan Enrique, who internationally represent England, where they moved at an early age – and by 43-year-old Raul Mesa, who crowned himself a European champion in 2005 when playing together with another legend of Spanish Beach Volleyball, Pablo Herrera.  

Anyone vying for the medals shall reckon with local heroes Arthur Canet and Téo Rotar, who have a truly impressive list of accolades from age-group World and European Championships and will represent the Montpellier Beach Volley together with the experienced siblings Quincy and Calvin Ayé. 

Other names that Beach Volleyball fans are certainly familiar with include Italy’s Matteo Martino and the Ingrosso twins, Paolo and Matteo, who are due to wear the shirt of Beach Volley Training Beinasco in their return to international competition, as well as Slovenia’s multiple national champions Nejc Zemljak and Danijel Pokeršnik, who will feature in the men’s competition with BVC Ludus Ljubljana. 

If we look at the rosters of the clubs registered for the women’s competition, reigning champions BVC Ludus Ljubljana of Slovenia and Ukraine’s Sunrise Beach Sports Academy may look as the most competitive and compact sides, at least on paper. The gold medallists from the inaugural Beach Volley European Cup will travel to Montpellier with the top four Slovenian Beach Volleyball players, namely Tajda Lovšin/Tjaša Kotnik and Ziva Javornik/Maja Marolt. Javornik/Marolt are in good shape as they showed this past weekend when they won the MEVZA Zonal event held in Innsbruck for a second straight year. 

As for the club from Ukraine’s capital, they will field the experienced Valentyna Davidova together with rising stars Tetiana Lazarenko (a former U21 World and U18 and U20 European champion), together with Yeva Serdiuk and Daria Romaniuk – the latter duo are the U19 world champions from 2022. 

There are more familiar names due to travel to Montpellier – such as Russia’s Olga Motrich, a former ‘Queen of the Snow’ from the CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour due to represent Azerrail Baku, the experienced Victoria Palmer of England, who will defend the colours of Deep Dish Bournemouth, and Lithuania’s Urte Andriukaityte and siblings Gerda and Rugile Grudzinskaite of Oxyklinika. Speaking of rising stars, the eyes of the fans shall be on Romane Sobezalz, a 2023 #EuroBeachVolleyU18 bronze medallist competing for Beach Volley Toulousain, and Spain’s Marta Carro Márquez de Acuña of CV Majadahonda Madrid, who claimed silver at the U19 World Championships held in China only a few weeks ago. 

Therefore, there is much that you can look forward to since a great mix of youth and experience will be stealing the show in Montpellier to crown the winners of the Beach Volley European Cup 2024!