The top USA Volleyball beach teams took off of the Hamburg Elite at the end of August, staying home to compete in the 2025 AVP League Championships in front of an excellent crowd, per usual, at Oak Street Beach. It made sense for myriad reasons: World Championships berths have been essentially locked up for seven of the eight potential USA berths between the men and the women into Adelaide, Australia; Chicago has long been one of the most popular domestic stops on the AVP schedule, regardless of the format; with the rest of the calendar featuring all international play, it’s nice to stay home for one final weekend.
Now, however, for every USA Volleyball team, it’s back to punching the passport. The Beach Pro Tour Joao Pessoa Elite began Wednesday morning, and it is back to the typical 24-team main draw format the majority of Elites have been played this summer. This meant a one-round qualifier as opposed to the two we saw in Montreal, when it was only a 16-team main draw.
Three American teams competed in the women’s qualifier, and two — Hailey Harward and Molly Phillips, and Corinne Quiggle and Chloe Loreen — made it through. Harward and Phillips swept Estonia’s Heleene Hollas and Liisa Remmelg (21-19, 21-15) while Quiggle and Loreen did the same to Brazil’s Andressa Cavalcanti and Taina Silva (21-17, 21-15). Top-seeded Xolani Hodel and Kylie DeBerg fell to Brazil’s Barbara De Sousa and Flavia Moura (20-22, 21-17, 15-13).
Harward and Phillips and Quiggle and Loreen will join AVP League champions Lexy Denaburg and Julia Donlin, Hermosa Open champs Kelly Cheng and Molly Shaw, second-seeded Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher, and No. 8 seed Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft in the main draw. All four of those teams have virtually punched their tickets into Adelaide and will be looking to make it back-to-back World Championships gold medals for USA Volleyball.
The American men had no teams in the qualifier, with Chase Budinger and Miles Evans already in, alongside Chaim Schalk and James Shaw. Miles Partain and Andy Benesh, fresh off his wedding, are skipping Joao Pessoa but will be competing in Rio de Janeiro next week.
The Sagstetters had a huge win to qualify in Joao Pessoa/Volleyball World photo
Massive wins — and losses — taken in Joao Pessoa Elite qualifier
With just three events remaining in the race to World Champs — Elites in Joao Pessoa and Rio, and a Challenge in Mexico the first weekend of October — the qualifying rounds in Joao Pessoa were either a devastating blow or a momentous victory, depending on results.
No federation had a bigger day than Germany, who went 2-2 in the qualifier with the Sagstetter Brothers, Jonas and Benedikt, sweeping Adrian Mol and Markus Mol, 21-16, 21-9, and Lukas Pfretzschner and Sven Winter sweeping Chile’s Vicente Droguett and Fernando Quintero, 21-16, 21-12. The Sagstetters are currently ranked No. 31 in the World Champs standings and need a big finish in Joao Pessoa to push into the top-25. Pfretzschner and Winter are No. 19 in the World Champs standings, and could solidify their position into Adelaide with a top-10 finish in Joao Pessoa.
Just above the Sagstetters in the World Champs rankings stand France’s Remi Bassereau and Calvin Aye, sitting directly on the bubble: No. 25 in the World Champs standings. Their 24-22, 22-20 sweep over Javier Bello and Joaquin Bello cannot be understated in its importance for both teams. The Bellos, who have been battling a number of minor injuries, are currently on the outside looking in for World Champs, at No. 33. They’ll be in the qualifier again next week in Rio, where they are the defending gold medalists. While a repeat gold medal run isn’t necessary, a push into the top-five might be.
The team directly below Bassereau and Aye? Portugal’s Joao Pedrosa and Hugo Campos. After a tremendous start to the season — three top-10s in their first four events, including a bronze at the season-opening Yucatan Challenge — Pedrosa and Campos have had a brutal stretch, finishing 13th, 25th and 19th before a solid ninth at the Baden Challenge. In an almost do-or-die match vs. Switzerland’s Adrian Heidrich and Jonathan Jordan, they survived with a walk-off ace to qualify in a 21-15, 19-21, 17-15 victory.
It was the first in what would become a rough day for the Swiss men. Yves Haussener and Julian Friedli, No. 28 in the World Champs standings, dropped to Andre and Renato, 23-21, 21-13, 15-8, a tremendous blow to their World Champs hopes.
As far as the World Championships standings go, the women’s side had little of note. France’s Lezana Placette and Alexia Richard swept Norway’s Sunniva Helland-Hansen and Nina Pavlova, 21-10, 21-15, which was the most significant win of the day. They are No. 26 and directly on the bubble. A few good wins in the main draw could be the final push needed to punch their ticket.
A little breathing room would have been nice for Emi van Driel and Wiez Bekhuis of the Netherlands, but none will be found in Joao Pessoa. The No. 24 ranked team in the standings was swept by Brazil’s Verena Figueira and Kyce Martins, 21-13, 21-17.
