Paulikiene & Raupelyte to take on Pavelkova twins in women’s Tlaxcala showdown

Lithuanian Olympians Monika Paulikiene & Aine Raupelyte persevered through two tie-breakers on Saturday and made it to their first ever Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour final as a team. In the Tlaxcala Challenge women’s gold medal match on Sunday, they will take on 20-year-old Czech twin sisters Katerina Pavelkova & Anna Pavelkova, for whom it will be the third final on the Tour, but also the first in the Challenge category. The bronze medal playoff will feature an all-American clash between Sara Hughes & Allysa Batenhorst and Geena Urango & Megan Rice.

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

Saturday’s women’s program in Mexico started with the quarterfinal round. 13^th-seeded Monika Paulikiene & Aine Raupelyte put together a 2-1 (21-18, 16-21, 15-10) upset of Italian bracket leaders Claudia Scampoli & Giada Bianchi. In their semifinal, the Lithuanians came back from a set down against the third-seeded American pairing of Tlaxcala 2023 world champion Sara Hughes with Allysa Batenhorst to celebrate a 2-1 (15-21, 21-14, 16-14) turnaround in the overtime of the tie-breaker and advance to Sunday’s gold medal showdown. 31-year-old Paulikiene shined with six aces in that game, while her 25-year-old teammate Raupelyte delivered four kill blocks and two aces to lead the winners with a team-high 26 points.

17th-seeded Katerina Pavelkova & Anna Pavelkova, on the other hand, took both of their matches on Saturday in straight sets. First, the Czech hopefuls hammered out a 2-0 (21-13, 21-13) shutout of 12^th-seeded Australians Jasmine Fleming & Elizabeth Alchin. Anna was on fire in this quarterfinal with nine kill blocks and an ace towards a match-high 21 points. Then, the Pavelkova twins battled it out for a hard-fought 2-0 (21-18, 25-23) semifinal victory over 22^nd-seeded Americans Geena Urango & Megan Rice. This time, Katerina led the way with 20 points.

To get to the last four and eventually to an all-American bronze medal game, Hughes & Batenhorst managed a 2-1 (21-17, 12-21, 15-11) quarterfinal win over Emi van Driel & Mila Konink of the Netherlands, with as many as 10 kill blocks from Batenhorst, while Urango & Rice took out fourth-seeded compatriots Abby Van Winkle & Molly Phillips in straight sets, 2-0 (21-14, 21-13), to decorate their Beach Pro Tour debut as a pair with a top-four finish.

The third-place playoff on Sunday will get underway at 12:00 local time (18:00 UTC), while the gold medal showdown is set to serve off at 13:00 (19:00).

Beach Pro Tour Tlaxcala Challenge: schedule and results

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