It was only the second Beach Pro Tour appearance for the recently formed US pairing of 23-year-old Lexy Denaburg and 25-year-old Deahna Kraft, but they have already pocketed their first gold as a team. It was also the first-ever Tour medal for Kraft, while Denaburg had known the feeling of being on top of the podium, as she and Carly Can triumphed at the Seoul Futures last year.
Denaburg & Kraft were impeccable in their run towards the gold in Leuven. Seeded fourth in the women’s main draw bracket, they cruised to the top without dropping a single set in their five matches played. They crowned their quest with a 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) sweep of the gold medal showdown against Dutch qualifiers Lisa Luini & Desy Poiesz. Before that, in the semifinals, the American duo mastered a 2-0 (21-19, 21-18) upset of the top-seeded home team of Sarah Cools & Lisa Van Den Vonder.
The pair of 21-year-old Dutch athletes appeared on the Tour as a team for the first time and immediately made their way from the qualifiers all the way to the final and the podium. Initially seeded seventh in the qualification bracket and then 12th in the main draw bracket, Luini & Poiesz claimed the silver medals on a record of six wins and two losses in Leuven. Before falling to Denaburg & Kraft for the gold, they overcame another American pair, Madelyne Anderson & Brook Bauer, also arriving from the qualifiers, in a hard-fought 2-1 (21-14, 12-21, 15-11) semifinal. While Luini celebrated her first-ever Beach Pro Tour medal, Poiesz had already won gold at the 2023 Ios Futures, in addition to the FIVB U21 Beach Volleyball World Championship title later last year.
Cools & Van Den Vonder bounced back from their semifinal loss and pleased the home crowd in Leuven with a 2-0 (22-20, 21-16) win over Anderson and Bauer in the third place match, collecting their fourth consecutive and fifth overall medal on the Beach Pro Tour. The Belgian duo’s showcase also features four medals from the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
