A temporary team on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, Dutch Mila Konink and Raisa Schoon are set to make their first semifinal appearance together on Saturday, at the Baden Challenge, after the two survived a couple of elimination matches in Austria on Friday.

The Dutch will face Finland’s Niina Ahtiainen and Taru Lahti in one of the semifinals at the Thermalstrandbad Baden at 13:00 local time (11:00 GMT), with Germany’s Linda Bock/Louisa Lippmann and Ukraine’s Valentyna Davidova/Anhelina Khmil playing one hour earlier. The winners will meet in the gold medal match at 18:00 (16:00 GMT).

• Watch Beach Pro Tour Baden Challenge live on VBTV

A two-time Olympian, the 23-year-old Schoon picked up the 20-year-old Konink as her temporary partner in May as her regular teammate Katja Stam dealt with a back injury. The two headed to Baden having played four Beach Pro Tour events together and having never made it past the Round of 16, which they accomplished last week at the European Championship, ranking fifth.

The young Dutch had a pair of challenging elimination duels on Friday in Baden, but survived both to make it to the semifinals, beating Spanish Olympians Daniela Álvarez and Tania Moreno in the tie-breaker (21-18, 19-21, 15-9) in the Round of 16 and sweeping (21-12, 21-17) Australian Olympic medalist Taliqua Clancy and her partner Jana Milutinovic in the quarterfinals.

Their semifinal opponents, the 28-year-old Ahtiainen and the 32-year-old Lahti have been playing together since 2022 and are back in the semifinals for the second time in 2025 Beach Pro Tour season, after taking silver at the Xiamen Challenge, back in May.

On Friday, the Finnish won a pair of three-setters to find their way to the semifinals in Baden, beating the Ukrainian Makhno twins Inna and Iryna 2-1 (12-21, 23-21, 17-15) in the Round of 16 and winning another tie-breaker (21-15, 10-21, 15-12) against Australian qualifiers Jasmine Fleming and Stefanie Fejes in the quarterfinals.

The two teams met on Thursday in Baden, during pool play, and the Finnish came out on top, winning in straight sets.

Ukrainians make first Challenge semifinal appearance

In the other semifinal, Ukrainians Davidova and Khmil will be the ones competing in the Final Four of a Challenge event for the first time. Sharing the court on the Beach Pro Tour since 2024, the two won a pair of silver medals in Futures events, but had never made it past the quarterfinals at the Challenge level.

That changed on Friday, when the Ukrainians dominated Australians Elizabeth Alchin and Georgia Johnson to win 2-0 (21-15, 21-16) in the Round of 16 and continued in great form to sweep (21-18, 21-9) Americans Deahna Kraft and Molly Phillips in the quarterfinals.

A new team in 2025, Germans Bock and Lippmann made their first semifinal appearance in a Challenge event at the end of June, when they took silver in Stare Jablonki. The former volleyball players have shared the court in only six events on the sand so far.

Lippmann, a Paris 2024 Olympian, and Bock were unstoppable on Friday, when they eliminated Spanish Ana Vergara and Sofía González with a straight-set (21-7, 21-15) victory in the Round of 16 and knocked Lithuanian Olympians Monika Paulikiene and Aine Raupelyte out in the quarterfinals, also in two sets (21-17, 27-25).

Beach Pro Tour Baden Challenge – Match Schedule and Results

Saturday’s encounter in Baden will be the first between Ukrainians and Germans on the Beach Pro Tour.

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