Women’s semifinals set in Espinho
Beach Nations Cup Finals
Germany, Ukraine, Spain and the Netherlands are the four countries that continue alive in the race for the 2025 CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup Finals women’s title after the tournament’s second day of matches was completed in Espinho on Friday.
The four national teams will return to action on Saturday, when the semifinals will be held at the Praia da Baía, with the Germans facing the Spanish and the Ukrainians playing the Dutch. The gold medal match is scheduled for Sunday.
Germany earned a direct spot in the semifinals after they emerged as the top team in Pool A in Espinho. After getting victories against Lithuania and the Netherlands on Thursday, they completed their perfect pool play campaign with sweeps over French duos on Friday – Sandra Ittlinger and Anna-Lena Grüne topped Lézana Placette and Alexia Richard 2-0 (21-18, 21-4), while reigning European champions Svenja Müller and Cinja Tillmann dominated Clémence Vieira and Aline Chamereau to a two-set (21-19, 21-16) victory.
Their opponents Spain took a longer route to the semifinals as they had to play in the quarterfinals after ranking second in Pool B with ten points. The Spanish faced France for a spot in the semifinals and needed the golden set to win after Daniela Álvarez and Tania Moreno defeated Vieira and Chamereau 2-1 (21-18, 13-21, 15-13) and Sofía González and Ana Vergara fell to Placette and Richard in straight sets (21-16, 21-15). Álvarez and Moreno faced Chamereau and Placette in the golden set and triumphed 15-11.
CEV Beach Nations Cup Finals – Women
In Pool B, Ukraine were the ones to advance directly to the semifinals. After beating Spain and Estonia on Thursday in Espinho, the teams from the country gave hosts Portugal no chance, with Valentyna Davidova and Anhelina Khmil beating Gabriela Coelho and Mariana Maia in two sets (21-7, 21-13) and Maryna Hladun and Tetiana Lazarenko sweeping (21-12, 21-16) Vanessa Paquete and Raquel Lacerda.
Defending champions the Netherlands earned a spot in the quarterfinals as the second-best team in Pool A with nine points and from there advanced to the semifinals. The Dutch faced Portugal and dominated the series, with Mila Konink and Raïsa Schoon triumphing over Coelho and Maia in the tie-breaker (21-10, 19-21, 15-10) and Emi van Driel and Wies Bekhuis taking Paquete and Lacerda down in straight sets (21-11, 21-9).
Introduced in the European beach volleyball calendar in 2022, the Beach Nations Cup is an exciting ‘country vs country’ competition which resembles the Davis Cup in tennis.