Challenge - Xiamen, CHN - 2025

Toni & DeBerg snatch first Beach Pro Tour gold together

Lahti & Ahtiainen with silver and Kunst & Paul with bronze complete the Xiamen women’s podium

Published 12:19, 18 May 2025

USA’s Toni Rodriguez & Kylie Kuyava-De Berg celebrated their first Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour medal as a team by snatching gold at the Xiamen Challenge on Sunday. It was Toni’s second gold and sixth overall medal on the Tour, while for DeBerg, it was the third podium, but the first time on the very top of it.

Watch the Xiamen Challenge on VBTV

Finland’s Taru Lahti-Liukkonen & Niina Ahtiainen finished runners-up in China and picked up their fifth Beach Pro Tour medal. Previously, they had three gold and one silver medals in their collection.

Germany’s Lea Kunst & Melanie Paul made it all the way from Wednesday’s qualifications to Sunday’s podium in Xiamen. Seeded 28^th in the 32-team main draw, they claimed bronze, their first Beach Pro Tour medal as a team and the first Challenge-level hardware for either of the two players individually.

Lahti & Ahtiainen, seeded 21^st in the tournament, dominated the first set of Sunday’s final, taking it by a wide eight-point margin. 13^th-seeded Toni & DeBerg took control in the second and leveled the match, striking back with the same eight-point margin. They rode the momentum to break away early into the tie-breaker and never looked back to triumph with a 2-1 (13-21, 21-13, 15-9) victory. While the US pair did not score any aces in the match, against two from the Finns, DeBerg managed to raise all of her team’s five kill blocks, which made a big difference towards the final outcome. She finished with a total of 13 points, while Toni produced a team-high 17, all in attack. Ahtiainen was the best scorer of the match with 18 points.

“It’s exciting! Happy to do it with my best friend!” Kylie Kuyava-De Berg said right after the final. “We’ve grinded a lot this season and it’s really nice to be here.”

“A lot goes to my partner, because she brought me back mentally in the game,” Toni Rodriguez added.

Earlier on Sunday, Kunst & Paul mastered a 2-0 (21-18, 21-15) sweep of the third-place match against 29^th-seeded American qualifiers Savannah Simo & Abby Van Winkle. The Germans dominated throughout the match and outplayed their opponents mostly with their successful effort in offense. Paul was the best scorer of the match with 19 points, including one ace, while Kunst added 10, including one kill block. Van Winkle led the American duo with 15 points, also including a block.