Duos from empowerment-supported Lithuania and France medal at Geneva futures

Paris: Two teams representing federations that benefit from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment made the podium at last week’s women’s Geneva Futures on the Beach Pro Tour. Lithuania’s Ieva Dumbauskaite & Gerda Grudzinskaite picked up the silver medals in Switzerland, while, France’s Elsa Descamps & Romane Sobezalz took bronze. Meanwhile, Beach Pro Tour first-timers Alexis Durish & Audrey Koenig of the United States crowned their impressive debut with gold.

The Lithuanian Volleyball Federation’s beach volleyball department has so far been granted a total of USD 477,000 in FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support for their national duos, and another USD 12,000 for national team coaches development knowledge transfer programs. Their women’s pairs have been training under the guidance of Paulius Matulis and Austrian coach Simon Nausch. France’s beach volleyball department has been allocated coach support funding from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment totaling USD 1,077,000 so far. Their women’s national duos are working under the guidance of Youssef Krou. The Federation Francaise de Volleyball has also received USD 5,500 in beach volleyball equipment.

Second-seeded Dumbauskaite & Grudzinskaite of Lithuania reached the Geneva Futures final without dropping a single set along the way. In their semifinal (pictured in the main photo; source: cev.eu), they put together a 2-0 (21-19, 21-11) victory over fourth-seeded Descamps & Sobezalz of France, to secure a spot on the podium. For them, this was the second silver and overall fourth medal on the Beach Pro Tour. This season alone, Dumbauskaite & Grudzinskaite made a Beach Pro Tour podium for the third time, after the Nuvali Futures bronze and the Battipaglia Futures silver.

Descamps & Sobezalz also finished the tournament on a 4-1 win-loss record, but after their semifinal loss to the Lithuanians, it was only good enough for the bronze. The French team bounced back with a 2-0 (21-12, 21-16) sweep of the third-place match against sixth-seeded Kaylee Glagau & Emma Glagau of Canada and earned their second Beach Pro Tour medal together, after the 2024 Castellon Futures silver.

21-year-old American rookies Durish & Koenig started the Geneva tournament from the qualifications and managed to string up seven consecutive victories all the way to the top of the podium, while dropping only two sets along the way. One of them was the overtime second set of the gold medal showdown. Durish & Koenig, seeded 14th in the 16-team main draw, triumphed after a 2-1 (21-16, 24-26, 15-5) upset of Dumbauskaite & Grudzinskaite. In their semifinal match, the US pair produced a 2-0 (21-15, 21-18) win over the Glagaus.

A week after a men’s Futures event took place in Geneva, 25 teams representing 14 different countries took part in last week’s women’s tournament. The next Futures stop on the Beach Pro Tour will be held in Montpellier, France this week, from July 3 to 6.