Spanish women and men advance to the Finals
Beach Nations Cup
Spain benefited from homecourt advantage to become the first country guaranteed in the Finals of the fourth edition of the CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup as the Spanish claimed both the women’s and the men’s berths in play this week in Madrid.
With that, six spots in each gender to compete in Espinho, Portugal, from July 17-20, continue available in the Beach Nations Cup, an exciting ‘country vs country’ competition introduced in 2022, which resembles the Davis Cup in tennis. Besides the Spanish, hosts Portugal are also guaranteed.
In order to qualify on the women’s side, the Spanish had to overcome competition from duos from Hungary and Slovenia. The host country had no trouble handling the Hungarians on Wednesday morning, with Nazaret Florian and Adriana Serrano beating Chiara Honti-Majoros and Adrienn Szabó 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) and Marta Carro and Sofía González overcoming Stefánia Kun and Lilla Villám also in straight sets (21-18, 21-16).
CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup – Women’s Pool E
The teams returned to the sand at the Parque Deportivo Puerta de Hierro a few hours later to face Slovenia in the series that would determine the pool winners and had different results, with Florian and Serrano falling to Tjasa Kotnik and Maja Marolt 2-0 (22-20, 21-19) and Carro and González sweeping (21-14, 21-17) Živa Javornik and Tajda Lovsin. Because they had the advantage in the tie-breakers, the Spanish were the winners of Pool E.
Spain prevail over three countries among the men
On the men’s side, the home teams had to face three opponents to secure the Pool C title. Their campaign started on Tuesday, against Northern Ireland, with Antonio Saucedo and Álvaro Viera beating Gavin McCaughern and Paddy Dally 2-0 (21-7, 21-8) and the Huerta brothers Alejandro and Javier downing Jeff Scott and Jonathan Workman also in two sets (21-5, 21-11).
Later in the day, the Spanish faced Belgium and came out with another pair of sweeps, as Saucedo and Viera overcame Berre Peters and Wout Nuyttens 22-20, 21-9 and the Huertas topped Daan Hendrikx and Louis Laenen 21-14, 21-14.
CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup – Men’s Pool C
The decisive series was against Ukraine and had split results, with Saucedo and Viera beating Ivan Datsiuk and Oleksii Bublyk in the tie-breaker (21-14, 17-21, 15-12) and the Huertas falling to the 2023 EuroBeachVolley bronze medalists Sergiy Popov and Eduard Reznik also in a three-setter (19-21, 21-19, 15-13). Again, Spain had the edge in the tie-breakers.
Over the weekend, the Greek coastal city of Heraklion will host the competition for Pool F in both genders. Estonia and Poland will be the countries challenging the host nation between Saturday and Sunday on the women’s side, while the male tournament will feature Greece, Luxembourg, Hungary and the Netherlands.