Challenge - Nuvali, PHI - 2025

Huerta & Gavira top Nuvali to earn first Beach Pro Tour medal together

England’s Bello & Bello against Italy’s Alfieri & Ranghieri complete the men’s podium in Santa Rosa

Published 01:31, 19 Oct 2025

Spain’s Alejandro Huerta & Adrian Gavira triumphed as men’s gold medalists at the Nuvali Challenge in the Philippines and made it to a Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour podium for the first time since they teamed up earlier this season.

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England’s Joaquin Bello & Javier Bello took silver, their first ever on the Beach Pro Tour, to improve on the Nuvali Challenge bronze they picked up last year. So far, the English twin brothers had collected one gold and four bronze medals on the Tour.

This year’s Nuvali Challenge bronze went to Italy’s Manuel Alfieri & Alex Ranghieri. It was their second Beach Pro Tour podium together, but first at the Challenge level.

The 2025 Nuvali Challenge men’s podium

Sunday’s men’s program in Santa Rosa offered four matches, all of which were resolved after three-set battles. In the gold medal showdown, the tie-breaker was pushed to overtime before fourth-seeded Huerta & Gavira could celebrate a 2-1 (21-17, 19-21, 17-15) victory over the fifth-seeded Bello brothers. The Spaniards outplayed the Englishmen mostly in offense, with Huerta delivering 29 spike kills, in addition to four kill blocks, towards a match-high 33 points. 38-year-old four-time Olympian Gavira chipped in with another 14 points, including two aces. Joaquin Bello raised five kill blocks and fired two aces to lead his team with 21 points. His brother Javier added another 20.

In the bronze medal game, sixth-seeded Alfieri & Ranghieri came back from a set down to produce a 2-1 (17-21, 21-18, 15-12) upset of top-seeded Austrians Christoph Dressler & Philipp Waller. Ranghieri contributed four aces and three kill blocks towards a team-high 21 points. Alfieri also reached the 20-point mark. Dressler was the best scorer of the match with 24 points, including four blocks and three aces, while Waller put away 13 points.

Earlier on Sunday, the semifinals were played. First, Huerta & Gavira and Dressler & Waller battled it out in a dramatic 2-1 (22-20, 18-21, 16-14) saga, with Huerta and Dressler sharing the top scorer honors with 26 points each.

Then, the Bellos mounted a 2-1 (11-21, 21-19, 15-11) comeback against Alfieri & Ranghieri, with Joaquin Bello leading the way with a match-high 25 points.