Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medalist Taliqua Clancy is about to make her first appearance on the 2026 Beach Pro Tour, and she arrives in the Philippines with a new partner. In fact, she last appeared on Tour at the previous Nuvali Challenge in October 2025, when she and Jana Milutinovic finished in ninth place. In November, the Australian pair took part in the Adelaide 2025 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship at home, but lost all three of their pool matches and dropped out of contention. They haven’t played at a world-level competition since then.
Now, 33-year-old three-time Olympian Clancy is finally back, but with Stefanie Fejes by her side. Last season, 21-year-old Fejes competed alongside Jasmine Fleming and took bronze at the Nuvali Challenge in October, following a successful 2024 season with various partners, including Milutinovic. Fejes won gold at her only appearance on this year’s Beach Pro Tour so far – at March’s Coolangatta Futures with Jasmine Rayner. Clancy & Fejes will appear together on the Beach Pro Tour for the first time at this week’s Challenge stop in Santa Rosa.
Paris 2024 Olympians Monika Paulikiene & Aine Raupelyte of Lithuania are the highest placed team in the FIVB World Ranking to compete in the Nuvali Challenge women’s tournament. They have already earned two Challenge silvers so far this season, in Tlaxcala in March and in Xiamen last week, and are back for more.
So are the other medalists from Xiamen – American winners Alexis Durish & Audrey Koenig, who are yet to fail to make the podium at a Beach Pro Tour participation, and French Olympians Lezana Placette & Alexia Richard. Last year’s Nuvali Challenge champions Anniina Parkkinen & Valma Prihti of Finland are also returning to the Philippines seeking for more success.
USA’s Corinne Quiggle & Chloe Loreen lead the way on entry points. They started competing on the Beach Pro Tour as a duo last season and made their first podium at the Veracruz Challenge in October. The Nuvali Challenge will be their second Tour event in 2026. Earlier this month, they finished ninth at the Brasilia Elite.
The Nuvali Challenge tournament will be conducted with a 32-team main draw in each gender. It starts on Wednesday with the qualification rounds with eight teams progressing to the main draw and joining the 24 directly seeded. The main draw begins on Thursday with modified pool play, with eight pools of four teams each, playing two pool semifinals, a losers’ match and a winners’ match to determine the final standings. The teams that finish third in the pools will take on the runners-up of other pools in the sixteenthfinal single elimination round, the winners of which will move to the eighthfinal round, where they will challenge the eight pool winners. Quarterfinals, semifinals and medal matches will follow to determine the final standings.
Women’s action in Santa Rosa is about to get underway with Wednesday’s qualification tournament, serving off at 08:00 local time (00:00 UTC).
