Challenge - Nuvali, PHI - 2025

Fejes & Fleming survive two three-setters to make Nuvali semis

Aussies to face Dumbauskaite & Grudzinskaite, while Parkkinen & Prihti take on Kylie & Maixnerova in the other semifinal

Published 04:52, 18 Oct 2025

Australia’s Stefanie Fejes & Jasmine Fleming persevered through two three-set battles on Saturday to advance to the Nuvali Challenge women’s semifinals on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. On Sunday, at 11:00 local time (03:00 UTC) in Santa Rosa, Philippines, they will take on Lithuania’s Ieva Dumbauskaite & Gerda Grudzinskaite. An hour later, Finnish qualifiers Anniina Parkkinen & Valma Prihti will challenge Czechia’s Kylie Neuschaeferova & Martina Maixnerova in the other semifinal. The bronze medal match will serve off later on Sunday, at 16:00 (08:00), and the gold medal showdown is scheduled at 18:00 (10:00).

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10^th-seeded Fejes & Fleming started their Saturday with a tie-breaker win over USA’s Devanne Sours & Madison Shields. They came back from a set down to mount a 2-1 (19-21, 21-19, 15-11) victory. Fleming was on fire and put away five aces and three kill blocks towards a match-high 31 points. The Australians battled it out for another comeback in the quarterfinals to celebrate a 2-1 (16-21, 21-18, 15-5) win over Japan’s Ren Matsumoto & Non Matsumoto. Once again, Fleming made a brilliant contribution of a match-high 25 points, including three aces and two blocks. Fejes also impressed from the serving line with four aces to finish with a total of 20 points.

Dumbauskaite & Grudzinskaite also had to power through a three-set duel in the quarterfinals. In the overtime of the tie-breaker, the 18^th-seeded Lithuanians emerged with a 2-1 (21-14, 17-21, 16-14) upset of fourth-seeded Shaunna Polley & Olivia MacDonald of New Zealand. Grudzinskaite fired five aces towards her team’s success and Dumbauskaite put away three kill blocks and two aces, as they finished with 19 and 18 points, respectively. Before that, in the eighthfinals, the Lithuanians produced an emphatic upset of top-seeded Australians Taliqua Clancy & Jana Milutinovic, taking them out in straight sets, 2-0 (21-16, 21-16). Dumbauskaite led the way with five aces, four kill blocks and seven spike kills. Grudzinskaite chipped in with another three aces to finish with 12 points.

Seeded 25^th in the 32-team main draw, Parkkinen & Prihti were the lowest ranked team to make the last four. On the way to the Finnish pair’s first ever Beach Pro Tour semifinal, they extended their winning streak in the Philippines to five games in a row, starting from the qualifications. On Saturday, Parkkinen & Prihti hammered out a 2-0 (21-14, 21-17) eighthfinal shutout of Switzerland’s Annique Niederhauser & Menia Bentele, with a match-high 17 points from Prihti. Then, led by a brilliant Parkkinen with a match-high 26 points, the Finns battled it out for a 2-1 (21-17, 14-21, 16-14) quarterfinal upset of second-seeded Lithuanian Olympians Monika Paulikiene & Aine Raupelyte.

Of all semifinalists-to-be, Kylie & Maixnerova had the “easiest” day at the Nuvali Challenge, putting together two straight-set wins. First, the sixth-seeded Czechs delivered a 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) eighthfinal victory over seventh-seeded Thainara Oliveira & Talita Simonetti of Brazil, with Maixnerova’s match-high 19-point tally featuring four aces. Then, they hammered out a 2-0 (21-11, 21-15) sweep of their quarterfinal against Estonia’s Heleene Hollas & Liisa Remmelg. Kylie topped the charts of that match with 20 points.