VeracruzChallenge_04_PVMediaSport

Puerto Rico’s Allanis Navas & Maria Gonzalez (source: PV Media Sport)

At their first appearance on the 2025 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, Puerto Rico’s Allanis Navas & Maria Gonzalez made it from Wednesday’s qualifications all the way to Saturday’s quarterfinals at the Veracruz Challenge in Mexico. Another two pairs that emerged from the qualifiers - New Zealand’s Shaunna Polley & Olivia MacDonald and Netheralnds’ Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon – also advanced to the last eight, along with three teams from the United States and two from Czechia.

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In Friday’s sixteenthfinals, Navas & Gonzalez, seeded 28th in the 32-team women’s main draw, battled it out for a 2-1 (21-12, 15-21, 15-8) victory over seventh-seeded Mila Konink & Floor Hogenhout of the Netherlands, with a match-high 20 points from Navas and another 12 from Gonzalez. The Puerto Rican duo went on to produce a 2-0 (21-18, 21-19) sweep of their eighthfinal match with sixth-seeded Ukrainians Yeva Serdiuk & Daria Romaniuk. This time Gonzalez was the best scorer of the game with 22 points, including four kill blocks, while Navas chipped in with another 11. While Navas & Gonzalez are in their first Beach Pro Tour appearance of 2025, they have been having a very successful season on the NORCECA Beach Volleyball Tour, collecting six gold and one bronze in seven appearances so far.

Serdiuk/Romaniuk vs. Gonzalez/Navas - Beach Volleyball - Women - Match Highlights, 03/10/2025

In Saturday’s quarterfinals, the Caribbean team will take on Czechia’s Katerina Pavelkova & Anna Pavelkova. The 18th-seeded twin sisters, who turned 20 on Thursday, also recorded two victories in the Veracruz knockouts on Friday – 2-0 (21-14, 21-13) over Switzerland’s Annique Niederhauser & Menia Bentele in the sixteenthfinals, and 2-0 (21-19, 22-20) over USA’s Alaina Chacon & Morgan Chacon in the eighthfinals.

As pool winners, 24th-seeded qualifiers Polley & MacDonald of New Zealand skipped the first elimination round. In the second, they hammered out a 2-0 (21-11, 21-16) shutout of 15th-seeded Czechs Kylie Neuschaeferova & Martina Maixnerova to progress to a quarterfinal clash with 14th-seeded Americans Hailey Harward & Molly Phillips. To get there, Harward & Philips survived two tie-breakers on Friday. They took a 2-1 (21-19, 18-21, 15-10) sixteenthfinal win over compatriots Abby Van Winkle & Deahna Kraft, before upsetting second-seeded Australians Taliqua Clancy & Jana Milutinovic in a 2-1 (16-21, 21-19, 15-11) eighthfinal.

Clancy/Milutinovic vs. Harward/Phillips - Match Highlights, 10/03/2025

26th-seeded Dutch stars Stam & Schoon, who also took off from the qualifiers and won their pool, went on to produce a 2-0 (21-15, 21-12) sweep of their eighthfinal against French Olympians Lezana Placette & Alexia Richard on the way to a quarterfinal meeting with third-seeded Czechs Marketa Svozilova & Marie-Sara Stochlova, who also won their round-of-16 fixture in straight sets, 2-0 (21-11, 21-19) against Ukraine’s Inna Makhno & Iryna Makhno.

There will be at least one American team among the semifinalists, as top-seeded Corinne Quiggle & Chloe Loreen will face compatriots Kylie Kuyava-De Berg & Xolani Hodel in one of the quarterfinals. In the eighthfinals, Quiggle & Loreen mastered a 2-0 (21-16, 21-17) shutout of Poland’s Marta Lodej & Urszula Lunio, while 21st-seeded DeBerg & Hodel came back from a set down against Canada’s Marie-Alex Belanger & Lea Monkhouse to celebrate a 2-1 (23-25, 21-17, 15-12) victory.

Saturday’s women’s program in Veracruz features both the quarterfinals, getting underway at 14:00 local time (20:00 UTC), and the semifinals set to close the competition day in the evening.