Four European teams made it to the men’s semifinals at the Nuvali Challenge in the Philippines on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. Spain’s Alejandro Huerta & Adrian Gavira will take on Austria’s Christoph Dressler & Philipp Waller in Sunday’s first semifinal in Santa Rosa at 09:00 local time (01:00 UTC). An hour later, England’s Joaquin Bello & Javier Bello and Italy’s Manuel Alfieri & Alex Ranghieri will lock horns for the remaining vacancy in the gold medal showdown, set to serve off at 17:00 (09:00), two hours after the bronze medal game.

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Fifth-seeded Bello & Bello, who had topped their pool after two three-set victories, continued in the same fashion in Saturday’s elimination rounds and, adding two more tie-breaker wins to their Nuvali track, made it to the last four of the tournament. In the eighthfinals, the English twins squeezed out a 2-1 (14-21, 21-19, 19-17) victory over the still reigning U21 world champions, Belgian qualifiers Kyan Vercauteren & Joppe Van Langendonck, deep into the overtime of the third set. Joaquin Bello put up an impressive eight kill blocks to finish with 20 points. His brother Javier led the team with a total 22 points. Then, they went on to produce a hard-fought 2-1 (21-23, 25-23, 15-11) turnaround in their quarterfinal against second-seeded Samuele Cottafava & Gianluca Dal Corso of Italy. Javier Bello led the way again, with a match-high 25 points.

Another Italian pair, sixth-seeded Alfieri & Ranghieri, also added another tie-breaker win to the two they had put together in their pool. In the quarterfinals, they came back from a set down against Indonesia’s Bintang Akbar & Sofyan Rachman Efendi to celebrate a 2-1 (17-21, 21-16, 15-12) victory. Alfieri was the best scorer of the match with 27 points, including three aces. Before, that, in the eighthfinals, the Italians managed to take out Australian qualifiers D'Artagnan Potts & Jack Pearse in straight sets, 2-0 (21-19, 21-18), with a 16-point match high from Ranghieri, including three blocks.

Fourth-seeded Huerta & Gavira started their day with their first three-setter of the tournament. The Spaniards advanced to the quarterfinals after a 2-1 (17-21, 21-15, 15-9) win over Denmark’s Mads Mollgaard & Nicolai Houmann. Huerta topped the match charts with 26 points. They went on to deliver a 2-0 (21-16, 21-17) shutout of Italy’s Enrico Rossi & Marco Viscovich to move on to the semis. Huerta piled up another 24 points across the two sets of the match.

Top-seeded Dressler & Waller did not waste much time on Saturday and cruised to the last four on two convincing straight-set wins. In the eighthfinals, the Austrians hammered out a 2-0 (21-15, 21-16) shutout of their compatriots Moritz Pristauz & Alexander Horst, with Dressler as the top scorer with 20 points, including four blocks and two aces, and followed up with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) sweep of their quarterfinal against Czechia’s Tadeas Trousil & Jiri Sedlak, chipping in with 14 points apiece.

Beach Pro Tour Nuvali Challenge: schedule and results

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