Finland’s Taru Lahti-Liukkonen & Niina Ahtiainen and USA’s Toni Rodriguez & Kylie Kuyava-De Berg will face each other in Sunday’s women’s final at the Xiamen Challenge on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. Two teams emerging from the qualifications – Germany’s Lea Kunst & Melanie Paul and USA’s Savannah Simo & Abby Van Winkle – will meet in the battle for bronze in China.

• Watch the Xiamen Challenge on VBTV

Taru Lahti-Liukkonen & Niina Ahtiainen, seeded 21^st, persevered through two three-setters on Saturday to push through to Sunday’s gold medal match. In a quarterfinal battle, the Finns came back from a set down against sixth-seeded Marketa Svozilova & Marie-Sara Stochlova of Czechia to produce a 2-1 (21-23, 21-16, 15-10) upset. Lahti led the way with five aces and six kill blocks towards a match-high 25 points.

In the semifinals, Lahti & Ahtiainen achieved a 2-1 (21-12, 18-21, 15-12) victory over 28^th-seeded German qualifiers Lea Kunst & Melanie Paul to progress to their third Challenge final in the team’s history. Ahtianen fired three aces, while Lahti was once again the best scorer of the match with 22 points. For either of the German players, it was the first time to reach the final four of a Challenge tournament.

13th-seeded Toni Rodriguez & Kylie Kuyava-De Berg also went through two three-setters on Saturday, both against fellow American teams. First, they knocked out third-seeded Julia Scoles & Lexy Denaburg in a 2-1 (21-18, 17-21, 15-12) duel, with four aces from Toni and six kill blocks from DeBerg.

Their semifinal unfolded in a similar way, as they celebrated a 2-1 (21-18, 18-21, 15-12) victory over 29th-seeded qualifiers Savannah Simo & Abby Van Winkle, this time with three aces from Toni and six kill blocks from DeBerg. This way, Toni & DeBerg secured their first Beach Pro Tour podium as a team. For Savvy & Van Winkle, it was also the first time to reach the last four of a Beach Pro Tour event together.

Sunday’s final between Lahti & Ahtiainen and Toni & DeBerg will start at 18:30 local time (10:30 UTC), while the bronze medal match between Kunst & Paul and Savvy & Van Winkle is scheduled at 17:15 (09:15).

VW Beach Pro Tour Xiamen Challenge: match schedule and results

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