Schoon and Stam to lead the Netherlands in Nations Cup Pool C
News
Competition is set to begin this week for the women in the 2023 CEV Beach Volleyball Nations Cup with the Dutch city of Apeldoorn set to host Pool C, the first of the seven set to take place over the next five weeks.
Between Wednesday and Thursday, teams from hosts the Netherlands, Cyprus, Estonia, Northern Ireland and Slovenia will battle at Sportpark Orderbos with the winning country qualifying for the 2023 CEV Nations Cup Finals. The event’s final will be streamed live on CEV’s YouTube channel.
Playing in Apeldoorn, a city that staged a one-star FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event in 2021, hosts the Netherlands decided to approach Pool C in the Preliminary Phase with full strength, bringing Tokyo Olympians Raïsa Schoon and Katja Stam to play alongside up-and-comers Emi van Driel and Brecht Piersma in their team.
Schoon and Stam are currently the highest-ranked European team in the FIVB World Rankings, occupying fourth place in the list. The silver medallists of the 2021 CEV EuroBeachVolley, the two have won three Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite16 events in the last 16 months.
Katja Stam"We haven't played against most of the teams we'll be facing this week and it wasn't easy to find video on them either. In theory, our teams are the stronger in the event but we'll need to show it. We don't underestimate anyone, but if we can keep our focus on our game, we should succeed."
Dutch Beach Volleyball Player
Van Driel, 22, and Piersma, 20, became partners at the end of last year but have enjoyed some success in their short period as partners, winning the Futures event held in The Hague in December and taking fifth in a Challenge tournament in Itapema, Brazil.
Cyprus will have the most experienced player in the event in 39-year-old Erika Nyström. The Finland-born player had a long international career with the country between 2001 and 2017 and returned to the sand in 2021, after she acquired Cypriot nationality.
Nyström will be playing with 15-year-old Alexandra Gusarosva this week, while the other tandem from Cyprus will be formed by Manolina Konstantinou and Zoi Konstantopoulou.
Slovenia will also count on the experience of Tajda Lovsin to face strong competition this week in Apeldoorn. The 24-year-old has had some good success in 2022, winning silver medals in back-to-back Futures events in Lithuania and Greece. In the Nations Cup, she’ll be playing for the first time with Anja Maček – Živa Javornik and Maja Marolt form the second Slovenian duo.
Estonia’s hopes this week will mostly lay on their top team of Heleene Hollas and Liisa Soomets, the duo that won a World Tour one-star event in 2021 and took silver in a Beach Pro Tour Futures tournament in Italy last year. They’ll have Eva Liisa Kuivonen and Liisa-Lotta Jürgenson by their side in Apeldoorn.
With very limited international experience, Northern Ireland will be represented by Siobhán Healy/Teanna Mills and Rachel Montgomery/Vanessa Rodolpho-Oliveira Ross.
The Nations Cup has a different competition format, promoting ‘country vs. country’ battles. Each nation is represented by two teams and the duels take place in a best-of-three format, with the decider, if needed, being a 15-point golden set.
Created in 2022, the event brings added weight in 2023 and 2024, serving as the European pathway in the qualification system for the beach volleyball tournament of the Paris 2024 Olympics – the countries that win the 2024 Finals among the men and the women will each earn a spot in the Games. The seven pool winners and the host country will play in this year's Finals.
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