Heraklion hosts men’s and women’s pools this weekend

After Spanish men and women secured the first spots in the 2025 CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup Finals on Wednesday in Madrid, six other countries will try to do the same over the weekend, when one Preliminary Phase pool in each gender will take place in the Greek coastal city of Heraklion.

An exciting ‘country vs country’ competition introduced in 2022 which resembles the Davis Cup in tennis, the Beach Nations Cup will run for the next ten weeks, culminating with the Finals, which will be held in Espinho from July 17-20, reuniting hosts Portugal and the seven pool winners in each gender.

Hosts Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg and the Netherlands will contend at the Ammoudara Beach between Saturday and Sunday on the men’s side in Pool F, while Estonia, Greece and Poland are the candidates to qualify for the Finals this week in Heraklion among the women.

Led by Paris Olympian Matthew Immers, the Netherlands appear as the strongest candidates to dominate the men’s competition in Greece this week – the 24-year-old defender is playing with Ruben Penninga and they have appeared in four Beach Pro Tour events this season already. The country’s second team has 2023 EuroBeachVolley silver medalist Leon Luini and Quinten Groenewold.

CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup – Men’s Pool F

Hosts Greece will have Antiol Kola/Evangelos Sideris and Stavros Ntallas/Dimitrios Chatzinikolaou as their representatives in this week’s event.           

The men’s tournament will also feature Boldizsár Borbély/Lukas Niemeier and Bence Tari/Ákos Veress playing for Hungary and Félix Fellinger/Pierre Baustert and Steve Weber/Colin Hilbert trying to take Luxembourg to the Finals.

On the women’s side, Poland emerges as the most traditional among the three competing nations. Their squad, however, has only one player with significant international experience in 28-year-old Marta Lodej. She will play with 20-year-old Julia Kielak, while the country’s second team will feature 19-year-olds Natalia Okla and Julia Radelczuk.

CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup – Women’s Pool F

To make it to the Finals, they will need to overcome hosts Greece, who will be represented by Eleni Alexoglou/Myrto Paschalaki and Elisavet Triantafillidi/Dimitra Manavi, and Estonia, who will rely on Heleene Hollas/Liisa Remmelg and Eva Liisa Kuivonen/Liisa-Lotta Jürgenson.