Lithuania take the last spots in the Finals

The lineup for the 2025 CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup Finals was completed on Sunday, when Lithuania benefited from their homecourt advantage in Vilnius to claim the last spots in both genders.

The Beach Nations Cup, an exciting ‘country vs country’ competition introduced in 2022, which resembles the Davis Cup in tennis, will have its 2025 Finals held in Espinho, Portugal, from July 17-20, with eight national teams in each gender.

By winning the two pools held in Vilnius between Saturday and Sunday, Lithuania will be one of five countries to have qualified on both genders, alongside hosts Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and France. Czechia, Denmark and Austria, on the men’s side, and Estonia, Germany and Ukraine, among the women, will also fight for the title in a few weeks.

In order to qualify, Lithuanian men overcame competition from duos from Poland, Slovenia and Bulgaria to end as the best-ranked team in Pool D.

CEV Beach Nations Cup – Men’s Pool D

Their successful campaign in front of their home fans started on Saturday, with a pair of victories over Slovenia - Arnas Rumsevicius and Karolis Palubinskas defeated Miha Kosanc/Benjamin Mugerli 2-0 (22-20, 21-10) and Artur Vasiljev and Robert Juchnevic overcame Crtomir Bošnjak/Jaka Jevšnik in the tie-breaker (18-21, 21-12, 15-9).

On Sunday morning, the host country continued undefeated after getting two wins against Bulgaria. Vasiljev and Juchnevic drew the first blood, topping Zahari Zgurov/Georgi Antov 2-0 (21-10, 21-11), and Rumsevicius and Palubinskas followed up on it with a sweep (21-14, 21-15) against Dimitar Mehandzhiyski/Dimitar Kalchev.

The decisive duel against the Polish was highly competitive, with each country winning one match, but the home side had the edge in the set ratio. Poland won the first duel, with Aleksander Czachorowski and Jakub Krzeminski downing Vasiljev and Juchnevic in straight sets (21-17, 21-13), but Rumsevicius and Palubinskas came out strong and defeated Szymon Beta and Szymon Pietraszek also in two sets (21-19, 21-17) to please the home fans.

The Lithuanian women started their Pool B campaign in Vilnius on Saturday, winning a pair of matches against Croatia. Ariana Rudkovskaja and Skalve Krizanauskaite took Lucijana Terze and Mirna Becic down in straight sets (21-15, 21-11), while Monika Paulikiene and Aine Raupelyte topped Lea Rasic and Ana Sverko also in two sets (21-14, 21-12).

A few hours later, the home teams prevailed over Norway, with Rudkovskaja and Krizanauskaite beating Julia Tennøy and Solveig Sunde 2-0 (21-10, 21-14) and Paulikiene and Raupelyte needing the tie-breaker (21-14, 18-21, 15-11) to overcome Ingrid Tunby-Lunde and Emilie Olimstad.

CEV Beach Nations Cup – Women’s Pool B

Held on Sunday, the decisive series against Finland had the two sides splitting victories. The Finns took the first win, with Anniina Parkkinen and Valma Vilhelmiina Prihti downing Rudkovskaja and Krizanauskaite in the tie-breaker (13-21, 21-19, 15-11), but the home team fought back with Paulikiene and Raupelyte, who got the better of Niina Ahtiainen and Taru Lahti-Liukkonen in a dramatic three-set (23-21, 26-28, 15-11) battle to take Lithuania to the Finals.