News

06/07/2023

Experienced Finns and first-time American team win Helsinki Futures

29-year-old Troy Field and 26-year-old Evan Cory competed together for the first time on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour and immediately celebrated a golden victory. The Americans topped the podium at last week’s Helsinki Futures in Finland. Meanwhile, a well established Finnish pair, number 22 in the FIVB World Ranking Taru Lahti-Liukkonen and Niina Ahtiainen, dominated on home sand to take the women’s gold.

Field and Cory won all five of their matches in the Helsinki main draw. In Pool A, the top-seeded Americans mastered a 2-0 (21-7, 21-11) blowout of bottom-seeded pair of Finnish teenagers Veeti Viljamaa and Aleksi Hanninen and followed up with a 2-1 (19-21, 21-17, 15-10) comeback against Austria’s Tim Berger and Timo Hammarberg.

Another hard-fought three-setter propelled Field and Cory to the semifinals, 2-1 (23-21, 19-21, 15-12) in the quarterfinal against German qualifiers Jonas Sagstetter and Benedikt Sagstetter. The Americans met the winners of the previous week’s Futures event, Norwegian qualifiers Markus Mol and Jo Gladsoy Sunde, in the semis (pictured in the main photo, credits: cev.eu) and beat them in straight sets, 2-0 (21-19, 21-16). Another Austrian pair, third-seeded Mathias Seiser and Laurenc Grossig, also failed to stop Field and Cory on the way to the gold medals. The Americans mastered an emphatic 2-0 (21-14, 21-12) sweep of the final to celebrate as tournament winners.

The Helsinki Futures appearance was also the team debut for 28-year-old Seiser and 22-year-old Grossig on the Beach Pro Tour and they crowned it with silver. On the way to the final, they won four of their main draw games, losing only the Pool C winners’ match to Lithuania’s Artur Vasiljev and Robert Juchnevic before recovering with a 2-0 (21-10, 21-18) eighthfinal shutout of Australia’s Lucas Josefsen and Ben Hood, a 2-0 (21-18, 21-13) quarterfinal upset of second-seeded Poles Piotr Janiak and Jedrzej Brozyniak, and a 2-0 (23-21, 21-17) semifinal victory over fellow Austrians Berger and Hammarberg.

After once again starting the tournament from Thursday’s qualifiers, 21-year-old Mol and 20-year-old Sunde reached the podium, this time with bronze. The Norwegian duo had an epic campaign in Helsinki, losing only two of the eight matches played, one in the first round of pool play and one in the semifinals. After losing to Field and Cory, the Norwegians bounced back with a 2-1 (21-15, 19-21, 15-12) bronze medal victory over Berger and Hammarberg to get back at the Austrians for the defeat at the start of the main draw. It was the third Beach Pro Tour podium for Mol and Sunde, after the Futures gold medals in Warsaw and Ios.

The men’s podium in Helsinki (Photo credits: cev.eu)

30-year-old Taru Lahti-Liukkonen and 26-year-old Niina Ahtiainen claimed their second Beach Pro Tour medal, after the Maldives Challenge gold in October. Their road to the gold in Helsinki went through five back-to-back victories. In Pool A, the top-seeded Finns hammered out a 2-0 (21-9, 21-7) blowout of Spanish qualifiers Sara Bisbe and Luana Araco and a 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) sweep of Estonia’s Heleene Hollas and Liisa Soomets.

In all three of their playoff matches, however, Lahti and Ahtiainen were pushed to three sets and had to survive tie-breakers. In the quarterfinals, they took a 2-1 (21-15, 11-21, 15-8) win over France’s Elsa Descamps and Marine Kinna. Then they claimed a 2-1 (21-11, 19-21, 15-11) semifinal victory over Germany’s Melanie Paul and Hanna-Marie Schieder. In the big final, the Finns managed a 2-1 (18-21, 21-9, 15-12) comeback against second-seeded Australians Georgia Johnson and Jasmine Fleming to delight the home crowd with the trophy.

Niina Ahtiainen in action (Photo credits: cev.eu)

24-year-old Johnson and 20-year-old Fleming reached their third Beach Pro Tour podium of the season without dropping a single set on the way to the final. After a hard-earned 2-0 (25-23, 22-20) over Finnish qualifiers Valma Prihti and Aliisa Vuorinen, 2-0 (21-15, 21-15) over Descamps and Kinna, 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) over Hollas and Soomets and 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) over Poland’s Katarzyna Kociolek and Marta Lodej, the Aussies had to settle for silver. Previously on the Beach Pro Tour, they had a Coolangatta Futures silver in April and a Spiez Futures bronze in June.

Before losing their semifinal to Johnson and Fleming, the sixth-seeded Poles had not dropped a single set in three matches either. 28-year-old Kociolek and 26-year-old Lodej bounced back with a 2-1 (21-14, 12-21, 15-12) victory over Paul and Schieder in the third-place game to claim the bronze, their fourth Beach Pro Tour medal, after the Futures silvers in Warsaw and Myslowice in 2022 and Lecce in 2023.