Perez & Jackson win all-American final to triumph as U21 world champions

USA’s Sally Perez & Avery Jackson travelled all the way from the qualifications to the top of the women’s podium at the 2025 FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships in Puebla. In their first tourn ament together, they dropped only two sets in nine matches played to triumph with the world title. It was the second time the junior women’s world title was won by an American team, after Tara Roenicke & Summer Ross claimed it in 2010.

• Watch the 2025 FIVB U21 Beach Volleyball World Championships on the Beach Volleyball World YouTube channel

Another US pair, Zoey Henson & Sarah Wood, took silver after conceding the all-American final in Mexico on Sunday afternoon. Two of these four Americans – Sally Perez, now 19, and Sarah Wood, now 17 – claimed bronze at the U19 World Championship last year together and now they have both built up on that achievement, but with different partners.

Another team that made their way from the qualifications to the medal matches, Brazil’s Marcela Barbosa & Maria Clara, claimed the bronze.

The first set of the gold medal showdown offered a great battle. In the money time, Henson & Wood broke away with a 19-16 lead, but Perez & Jackson reacted with four in a row to reach the first set point. The set was pushed deep into overtime with both sides failing to convert their opportunities to close it off. Finally, a monster block by Perez ended the set and gave her team the lead. With three points in a row, Perez & Jackson broke away with a 14-11 advantage in the second set and never looked back. A pokey by Perez again ended the match at 2-0 (25-23, 21-15).

“It’s incredible! We’ve worked so far for this! Avery deserves this! She deserved the opportunity and I wanted to win it for her, so I am just super proud of us!” tearful Perez told FIVB.com right after the victory.

“This was such a competitive tournament, so just knowing that we were able to stick together (we never played with each other before and I am not a defender!), this is really awesome for us! We stuck through it and stayed positive,” Jackson added.

In a hard-fought bronze medal match in Cholula earlier on Sunday, Marcela & Maria Clara battled it out for a 2-1 (25-23, 14-21, 15-13) victory over yet another duo emerging from the qualifiers, Hungary’s Chiara Honti-Majoros & Stefania Kun. While this was the first world-level podium for 20-year-old Maria Clara, her 18-year-old partner Marcela has already been on a Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour podium as well, at the 2024 Pingtan Futures, also with a bronze.

The semifinals of the U21 World Championship were played earlier on Sunday morning. In the first one, Honti-Majoros & Kun put up a fight against Henson & Wood and pushed the match to three, but the Americans outlasted them for a 2-1 (21-13, 18-21, 15-12) victory. Then, Perez & Jackson dealt with Marcela & Maria Clara in a speedy 2-0 (21-15, 21-8) straight-setter.

2025 FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championship: schedule and results

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