Lithuania’s Paulikiene & Raupelyte celebrate first Beach Pro Tour gold at Nuvali Challenge

Lithuanian Paris 2024 Olympians Monika Paulikiene & Aine Raupelyte conquered their first ever Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour gold as a pair. They triumphed at the Nuvali Challenge in Santa Rosa, Philippines on Sunday. It was their third Challenge podium of the year, after the silver medals in Tlaxcala in March and in Xiamen last week. Before this season, the Lithuanian duo had collected two bronze medals on the Tour. Paulikiene had previously topped a Futures podium once, with a different partner. Her international achievements also include a 2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championship title.

• Watch the Nuvali Challenge on the Beach Volleyball World YouTube channel

USA’s Madelyne Anderson & Alaina Chacon brought home the Nuvali Challenge silver, the duo’s second Beach Pro Tour medal, after the Nayarit Challenge bronze from earlier this year.

Emi van Driel & Mila Konink of the Netherlands claimed the women’s bronze in Santa Rosa, their first Beach Pro Tour medal together.

Seeded on top of the women’s bracket in the Philippines, Paulikiene & Raupelyte lost a set in their opening match, but from then on, they cruised to the gold medals by adding a run of five straight-set victories to their winning streak. In the semifinals, the Lithuanian tandem mastered a 2-0 (21-18, 21-15) win over Van Driel & Konink, and in the gold medal showdown, they hammered out an emphatic 2-0 (21-12, 21-11) shutout of Anderson & Chacon. In the final, Raupelyte completely owned the net, delivering seven kill blocks and 16 spike kills towards a match-high 23 points. Paulikiene chipped in with two aces and eight kills in attack.

Other than the loss in the gold medal match and a setback they suffered in their pool final against Van Driel & Konink, Anderson & Chacon won all their games in straight sets. The 10^th-seeded Americans crowned their effort with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-19) semifinal win over Valentyna Davidova & Anhelina Khmil of Ukraine to secure their place on the podium.

26^th-seeded Van Driel & Konink upset a number of higher seeds on the way to the semifinals, reaching the last four undefeated. After the loss at the hands of the Lithuanian champions-to-be, they got back on the winning track with a hard-fought 2-0 (22-20, 21-18) victory over the ninth-seeded Ukrainian duo in the third-place playoff to celebrate the bronze.

A total of 56 women’s duos representing 24 different federations took part in the Nuvali Challenge.

The next Challenge stop on the Beach Pro Tour will take place in Alanya, Turkiye from June 10 to 14.

Beach Pro Tour Nuvali Challenge: all results

Quick links:
Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour
VBTV
Beach Volleyball World Facebook
Beach Volleyball World X
Beach Volleyball World Instagram
Beach Volleyball World YouTube
Subscribe to Volleyball World's Newsletter