At the recent women`s Bondues Lille Metropole Futures event in France, three teams supported by the FIVB Volleyball Empowerment program achieved a clean sweep of the podium. Lisa Luini and Desy Poiesz from the Netherlands celebrated their inaugural Beach Pro Tour gold medal together. The host nation, France, secured the remaining two spots, with Romane Sobezalz & Saofe Duval earning silver, and Ophélie Lusson & Alex Merle taking bronze.
The Dutch Volleyball Federation (Nevobo) has received a total of USD 217,600 from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment for national beach volleyball team coach support. Their women`s teams train under the guidance of Cypriot coach Antreas Savvidis and his staff. Similarly, France`s beach volleyball program has been allocated USD 1,077,000 in coach support funding through FIVB Volleyball Empowerment. Their national women`s duos are coached by Youssef Krou, a Paris 2024 Olympian. The French Volleyball Federation also benefited from an additional USD 5,500 for beach volleyball equipment.
The two 22-year-old Dutch athletes, Luini and Poiesz, navigated the tournament flawlessly, winning all five of their matches. In the semifinals, the fifth-seeded pair staged a comeback against the 13th-seeded Lusson & Merle, securing a hard-fought 2-1 victory (26-28, 21-18, 15-6). Facing the top-seeded French duo, Sobezalz & Duval, in the final, the Dutch team delivered a dominant performance, winning 2-0 (21-8, 21-14) in under thirty minutes. This victory marked their first time atop the podium on the Beach Pro Tour, adding to a previous silver and two bronze medals. Poiesz, a 2023 U21 world champion, had previously won a Beach Pro Tour event with a different partner.
The youthful French pair of 18-year-old Sobezalz and 19-year-old Duval also reached the gold medal match undefeated, winning all four of their preliminary matches. Their streak included a 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) semifinal triumph over the 12th-seeded German qualifiers Sophia Neuss & Mareet Maidhof. While Sobezalz & Duval have earned several age-category continental medals together, this was their debut as a team on the Beach Pro Tour. Both players had previously collected two Tour medals each with other partners.
In only their second appearance together on the Beach Pro Tour, Lusson & Merle fought for their team`s first medal. They experienced two losses out of their six games in Lille, both to the eventual champions, Luini & Poiesz. In the bronze medal match, Lusson & Merle rebounded with a 2-1 comeback victory (15-21, 21-17, 15-11) against Neuss & Maidhof to clinch third place. Individually, both athletes had also achieved podium finishes on the Tour with different teammates.
A total of 25 women`s duos, representing 16 different federations, participated in the Bondues Lille Metropole Futures.
The next Futures event on the Beach Pro Tour schedule is set to take place in Balikesir, Turkiye, from September 25 to 28.
Bondues Lille Metropole Futures: results and standings
Jasper Thornfield 
Finley Blackwood