Australia’s Stefanie Fejes & Georgia Johnson topped the podium at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour women’s Futures event that finished in Krakow, Poland on Sunday. Both members of the recently formed partnership have won Futures golds before with previous teammates, but always in Australia, and this was the first time for either of them to triumph away from home. For 19-year-old Fejes it was already the fourth Futures trophy in her collection. Poland’s Malgorzata Ciezkowska & Urszula Lunio settled for silver, while top-seeded Americans Kennedy Coakley & Brooke Sweat took bronze.
Eighth-seeded Fejes & Johnson allowed only one defeat in the six matches played during the tournament. In the Pool A winners’ match, 16th-seeded Ciezkowska & Lunio beat them by a hard-fought 2-1 (14-21, 21-17, 15-12). After that, the Australians went on a four-game winning streak. On Sunday, they produced a 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) semifinal victory over 10th-seeded Madison Shields & Delaney Peranich of the United States to face the same Polish opponents in the final again. The two teams delivered another exciting three-set battle, but this time Fejes & Johnson came back from a set down to end up on the winning end with a 2-1 (17-21, 21-11, 15-9) victory.
It was the fourth Futures gold for 19-year-old Stefanie Fejes. She took all previous three in a partnership with Jana Milutinovic at tournaments played in Australia – Coolangatta 2023, Mollymook 2024 and Coolangatta 2024. They also had one silver captured in “neighbouring” New Zealand, at the 2024 Mount Maunganui Futures. 25-year-old Georgia Johnson’s only previous gold on the Beach Pro Tour was also earned in Australia, at the 2023 Geelong Futures with Jasmine Fleming. That pair also picked up two silver and two bronze medals. The fourth Beach Pro Tour appearance for the new pair of Fejes & Johnson brought them the team’s first podium.
