Rising European beach volleyball duos from Denmark and Finland have advanced to the women’s eighthfinals at the Nuvali Beach Volleyball Challenge in Santa Rosa, Philippines — a key tournament on the 2025 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour.
Denmark’s Sofia Bisgaard and Cirkeline Høg, who entered as the 30th-ranked team in the main draw, topped Pool C after a dominant straight-set victory, 2-0 (21-16, 21-14), against Thailand’s Tanarattha Udomchavee and Rumpaipruet Numwong. Their third consecutive win earned them a direct slot in the second knockout round. They’ll face Japan’s Ren and Non Matsumoto in the upcoming clash for a place in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Finland’s Anniina Parkkinen and Valma Prihti, seeded 25th, overcame early struggles to defeat the Romanian pair of Francesca Alupei and Beata Vaida in a tight three-set match: 2-1 (13-21, 21-16, 15-8). The Finnish team now gears up for a high-stakes match against Switzerland’s Annique Niederhauser and Menia Bentele.
Upcoming Eighthfinal Matchups
The draw for the eighthfinals has been finalized, setting up several intriguing matchups:
- Denmark (Bisgaard/Høg) vs. Japan (Ren/Matsumoto)
- Finland (Parkkinen/Prihti) vs. Switzerland (Niederhauser/Bentele)
- Australia (Clancy/Milutinovic) vs. Lithuania (Dumbauskaite/Grudzinskaite)
- Thailand (Udomchavee/Numwong) vs. Lithuania (Paulikiene/Raupelyte)
- Brazil (Oliveira/Simonetti) vs. Czech Republic (Neuschaeferova/Maixnerova)
Matches resume Saturday at 11:00 local time (03:00 UTC). With valuable ranking points on the line, this stage is critical for teams aiming to climb the international standings and gain experience on the global circuit.
For more information, visit the official tournament page on Volleyball World.
