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Beach Volley Blog, Foro Italico, Rome (2026)

17/06/2022

Renato and Vítor Felipe silenced the Foro Itálico with the most stunning turn around I can remember. Paolo Nicolai and Samuelle Cottafava came storming out of the gate to win the first set but the Brazilians held firm and won the next two nail biting sets to advance to the quarter finals and destroy the Italian’s dreams. They are one of four Brazilian teams remaining in the World Championships. Photo by

15/06/2022

Izac Carracher & Mark Nicolaidis just keep on winning. These guys started the year by winning the Coolangatta Future tournament, but I don’t think anyone realized how soon that ‘future’ would be. Here they are a few months later in the final 16 of the World Championships. And if you think it's a fluke, think again. Their only loss in pool play came against Alison Cerrutti, as in two time World Champion and Olympic Gold medalist Alison Cerrutti. And it took Alison and Guto three sets to squeak past the young Australians. Izac and Mark proceeded to take down Brazil's answer to the future question, Renato and his partner Vitor Felipe. Those results meant Australia won their pool. And today, in the first round of the knockout phase, they got another win. This time against Norway’s lesser beachvolley vikings Mathias Berntsen & Hendrik Mol. Tomorrow they face yet another Brazilian team, but I think it is Andre Loyola & George Wanderley that should have trouble sleeping tonight with the way these Aussies are rolling.

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15/06/2022

Switzerland’s Esmée Böbner &
Zoé Vergé-Dépré won in todays Lucky Loser national round in a thrilling battle against Cuba’s Leila and Lidy. That result puts them in a round of 32 clash with Zoe’s sister Anouk and her partner Joana Heidrich. It also means the Beach Volley Blog will continue tracking their World Championship journey as they replace the Cuban women on the blog. Read all about their day and the World Championship journey series at beachvolleyblog.net (link in bio). Photo by

13/06/2022

Americans Terese Cannon & Sarah Sponcil came up with a big come from behind win today over Australia to clinch first place in Pool H. Cannon and Sponcil’s pool included two teams that played in Tokyo, including Olympic Silver medalists Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy. The Australians came out strong with Clancy scoring on serve, blocking and Mariafe covering the court on defense as always. Sponcil and Mariafe exchanged so many digs in the very entertaining match. Cannon and Sponcil are gelling into a very good team. Earlier this season, Sponcil was making dig but struggling a bit with transition attacks, but after six tournaments together, she and Cannon are firing on all cylinders. Last year when she played with Claes (Cheng) her precise passing led to frequent second ball attacks. That isn’t part of this new team’s game yet, but they had plenty of other weapons today to come up with a very important 16-21, 21-19, 15-6. Late in the second set the Americans saw a big lead evaporate, but had enough of a gap to hold off the hard charging Aussies. The third set was all America with Cannon showing her intent with five huge blocks sealing the deal.

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12/06/2022

Brandie Wilkerson & Sophie Bukovec got the biggest win of their young partnership today to win Pool E at the World Championships in Rome. The Canadians got their win at the expense of their American rivals Kelly Cheng and Betsy Flint, who are also a new team this season. So far in 2022 Cheng & Flint were the more successful of two North American teams and entered pool E as the top seeds. Both teams took care of business in their first two matches so todays clash was for the pool win. The Americans built a big 18-14 lead before Sophie caught fire from the service line and delivered a shocking 21-19 set one win. In the second set Canada used a 5 point run to open up a 17-13 lead. Brandie was at the service line this time but it was her presence at the net getting her hands on several shots and funneling the American attack to Sophie that had the big impact. Finishing pool play today means two days off for both of these teams before the knockout stage begins. Photo by

12/06/2022

Brandie Wilkerson & Sophie Bukovec got the biggest win of their young partnership today to win Pool E at the World Championships in Rome. The Canadians got their win at the expense of their American rivals Kelly Cheng and Betsy Flint, who are also a new team this season. So far in 2022 Cheng & Flint were the more successful of two North American teams and entered pool E as the top seeds. Both teams took care of business in their first two matches so todays clash was for the pool win. The Americans built a big 18-14 lead before Sophie caught fire from the service line and delivered a shocking 21-19 set one win. In the second set Canada used a 5 point run to open up a 17-13 lead. Brandie was at the service line this time but it was her presence at the net getting her hands on several shots and funneling the American attack to Sophie that had the big impact. Finishing pool play today means two days off for both of these teams before the knockout stage begins. Photo by

12/06/2022

Another day at the world championships, another big upset by Italy. Today it was Wild Card entrants Jacob Windisch & Gianluca Dal Corso taking down top seeds in their pool the Grimaldo cousins. Their pool didn’t start until today so they still have a little work to do before that are safely into the knockouts but that was a very good way for them to start in Rome. Photo by

11/06/2022

Marta Menegatti & Valentina Gottardi pulled off a huge upset today in their opening match at the World Championships. This is a very talented team, but they wouldn’t have qualified for the Worlds if they hadn’t been given a spot as hosts. For that reason, it was widely expected that their groups top seeds, Kelley Kolinske & Sara Hughes of the USA would cruise in their opener. But the Italians made it look like they were the overwhelming favorites as they put the American stars away 21-17, 21-19. The Americans took fourth at last week’s Elite 16 event and have one gold at the challenge level while the Italians have been playing in Future level tournaments this year. None of that mattered on Stadium Court at the Foro Italico today though. Menagatti has had a very successful career already, including two Olympic appearances. Gottardi is just 19 years old and showing the world that she can already block at the highest levels. After taking out the top seeds, Marta and Valentina have a very good shot at winning their pool, but they definitely don’t want to get ahead of themselves with Maria Carro / Angela Lobato (Spain) and Karelys Simisterra / Ariana Vilela (Ecuador) yet to come. Menagatti’s Olympic partner, Viktoria Orsi Toth pulled off another huge upset playing with her sister Reka Orsi Toth today. They continued the Italian euphoria with a 21-14, 21-19 win over Brazil’s Hegeile Almeida / Taiana Lima.

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05/06/2022

The never say die combination of Paolo Nicolai and Samuelle Cottafava won the most thrilling Elite 16 final yet today in Jurmala. After two amazing rally’s went Ahmed and Cherif’s way on both sides of an Italian timeout, they seemed dead to rights trailing 17-20 in the second set. They had already lost the first set and Cherif and Ahmed were siding out on autopilot. Qatars first chance at the win was met with an emphatic bounce down the line by Samuelle.Next, Cottafava made a read on Ahmed’s line shot and hit off the defenders hands as he was stuck at the net in transition. Next Nicolai came up with one of what felt like 1000 blocks to even the score. The teams exchanged side outs with Cottafava making some very brave swings that kept them alive by centimeters. Finally Samuelle came up with an ace to get the lead 26-25 and followed it up with a tough serve that ended with an overpass that Nicolai took care of. The third set went Italy’s way 15-12 and ended an amazing week for the new Italian pair just before the world championships start in their home country. Photo reposted from .cotta

04/06/2022

Sarah Pavan & Melissa Humana-Paredes have been beating up on Brazil all week in Jurmala. The Candadians finished second in pool B, with both wins coming against Brazil and today they took out Brazi’ls power teams in the quarterfinals and semifinals to advance to the championship match. And guess who they will play tomorrow? That’s right, Brazil again! The defending World Champions have only played in Elite 16s this season, so this is just their third tournament of the year, and it seems they are hitting their stride just in time to defend their world crown. Today they eliminatedTalita and Rebecca 21-17, 21-18 before knocking out Duda & Ana Patricia 18-21, 21-19, 15-10. The Canadians looked rattled early in the 1st set of the semifinals, falling behind 15-8 at one point, but they built momentum and confidence to close out the set. They were forced to battle from behind in the second set, too, but finally got the lead at 14-13 when Mel came up with a big ace causing confusion with a serve right down the middle. A few minutes later they scored another point on a long rally that featured some great defense by Humana-Parades. At set point it was Melissa who came up big again in the rain with a dig and transition kill to force a third set. Pavan took over early in the third set with couple of blocks during a four point run that built a lead the Canadians never let go of. The last Brazilian hurdle for Sarah and Melissa is Barbara and Carol, who finished second to Duda and Ana Patricia in their pool, but had a great two win day to make the championship match as well. Barbara and Carol already have two tournament wins at the challenge level and could become the first team to win three Beach Pro Tour events.

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03/06/2022

Path to the Jurmala Elite 16 championship is now clear. Who do you think will meet in the finals?

03/06/2022

Paolo Nicolai & Samuele Cottafava are the team of the day in Jurmala. They got two big wins today to send them into the quarterfinals. For the second week in a row, they’ve come out of the qualification round to make the main draw in an Elite 16, but this week in Latvia, they are going at least one step farther. That means they won’t have to worry about playing qualifiers for a while as they pad their entry rankings total at this key stage of the summer. Today they did it by breaking the hearts of the home team Aleksandrs Samoilovs & Janis Smedins 23-21, 14-21, 17-15. As a side note, if you have access to volleyballworld.tv, check out Samoilovs heroics to put Latvia up 13-11 in the third. Despite that amazing display by the Lion King, Nicoalai and Cottafava, who had lost their opening match, rescued their tournament with the late comeback. Smedins put a jumpset over the net and out ov Samoilovs reach on what should have been the winner and Cottafava punished them with a defensive stop, and ace and another dig/transition play for the win. Paolo and Samuele still had to win their last match against Paolo’s long time partner Daniele Lupo and his new partner Alex Ranghieri. Nicolai and Lupo played 92 tournaments together on the World Tour including three Olympic games and one silver medal. This was their first time as opponents and both teams needed a win to advance to the quarterfinals. Nicolai and Cottafava came out on top 21-17, 21-18 but we can expect to see these teams face off many times in the years ahead.

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