Austria’s Christoph Dressler & Maximilian Trummer and USA’s Carly Kan & Madelyne Anderson celebrated their first-ever Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour medals by topping the men’s and the women’s podiums, respectively, at the Sveti Vlas Futures, the first-ever Beach Pro Tour stop in Bulgaria. Two pairs from the Netherlands - Mees Sengers & Dirk Boehle and Brecht Piersma & Wies Bekhuis – picked up the silver medals, while another two from the United States - Hagen Smith & Logan Webber and Kennedy Coakley & Brooke Sweat – completed the podiums with bronze.

At only the second Beach Pro Tour appearance of the recently shaped American pairing of 29-year-old defender Kan and 22-year-old blocker Anderson, they managed to climb all the way to the top of the podium at the picturesque Venid Beach near the Marina Dinevi yacht port on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. Seeded sixth in the women’s main draw, they cruised through the tournament undefeated in five matches played, dropping only a set along the way, in Sunday’s final against top-seeded Piersma & Bekhuis, which they won by 2-1 (24-22, 17-21, 15-8). Earlier on Sunday, Kan & Anderson produced an emphatic 2-0 (21-11, 21-15) shutout of seventh-seeded Elsa Descamps & Marine Kinna of France.

“It was a battle. We knew it would be,” Kan told Volleyball World after the match. “We’ve played the Netherlands before. They are a really good team, never out of the game until the game is completely over. We were happy to come out strong and mentally focused in the tournament.”

“I had never been to Bulgaria and came here without any expectations,” Anderson added. “I’m loving it! I love the beach, the location is great, the temperature is awesome, the view is amazing… Pretty ideal, honestly! It’s a great spot!”

22-year-old Bekhuis and 21-year-old reigning U21 world champion Piersma also reached the Sveti Vlas final without losing any sets along the way. They crowned their run with a 2-0 (21-17, 23-21) sweep of the semifinal against fifth-seeded Americans Coakley & Sweat.

18-year-old Coakley and 38-year-old Rio Olympian Sweat won their first three games in Bulgaria and, after losing their semifinal match, they bounced back with a 2-1 (21-10, 17-21, 15-10) victory over Descamps & Kinna in the bronze medal match to achieve the team’s first Beach Pro Tour podium.

30-year-old Dressler and 28-year-old Trummer also reached their first Beach Pro Tour podium as a duo unbeaten in five games and dropping only one set in Sveti Vlas, in the quarterfinal round. In an all-Austrian semifinal, fifth-seeded Dressler & Trummer managed a 2-0 (21-14, 22-20) upset of second-seeded compatriots Florian Schnetzer & Lorenz Petutschnig and followed up with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) sweep of the final against third-seeded Sengers & Boehle.

“Usually, when you play well, most of the time you don’t know what you have been doing. So it was mainly not thinking too much, using our best hits, a lot of team chemistry, energy and power, and having fun,” Dressler told Volleyball World. “Bulgaria is beautiful and I really enjoyed it. I definitely want to come back, be it for beach volleyball or for holidays.”

31-year-old Sengers and 20-year-old Boehle also got to the gold medal match on a winning streak of four consecutive victories and a single set dropped in the quarterfinals. In their semifinal, the Dutch duo produced a 2-0 (21-18, 23-21) upset of top-seeded Americans Smith & Webber, but after losing the final, they had to settle for their second silver on the Beach Pro Tour.

After losing their only two sets of the tournament in the semis, 29-year-old Smith and 28-year-old Hagen made it to their third podium on the Tour with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-16) victory over Schnetzer & Petutschnig in the bronze medal game.

28 women’s and 26 men’s teams representing a total of 23 different countries took part in the Sveti Vlas Futures. The next Futures tournament - a women’s event in Krakow, Poland – will take place this week, from June 13 to 16.

Sveti Vlas Futures: results and standings

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