NEVZA Beach England 2025 – day two round-up

Niko Gleed and Enrique Bello had won their pool on day one with two wins from two and booked their country’s only semi-final place in an all-English battle, winning in straights sets against Haydn Lawson and Peter Soczewka.

The defeated duo - one an England indoor starlet and the other last year’s Youth U20 runner-up - were perhaps already feeling the effects of coming through their Round of 12 match, where they clinched the tie-breaker 15-12 to see off Norway’s Vegard Løkken and Erlend Heriksveen.

Bello and Gleed, though, will now have their sights set on tomorrow’s match against Norwegian brothers Sebastian and Jonah Kjemperud, the latter who won the U20s event last year with a different partner, for what promises to be a cracking encounter.

But it was to be a frustrating end to the competition for compatriots Alice Jagielska - an U18 Youth champion in Bridlington last year - and Kirsty Star, who struggled to find their very best form.

The duo scraped through the Round of 12 with a 16-14 tie-breaker success - saving a match point along the way - against fellow English side Ella Watson and Victoria Palmer.

However, they were unable to carry that momentum forward and went out in the quarters to Norwegian pair Julia Moi Tennøy and Solveig Sunde by a 21-16, 22-20.

It was left to Martha Bullen and Katie Keefe as the only remaining England women’s team left in the competition, and they carried on their impressive form to remain unbeaten in their three matches.

They booked a place in the last four with a straight sets (21-17, 21-10) triumph over Finland’s Peppiina Mäenpää and Ester Hirvonen that included winning eight unanswered points at the start of the second set.

Bullen and Keefe were both a part of the victorious Richmond team in the UKBT Club Championships team at Sandbanks earlier this month.

NEVZA Beach is their first stint playing internationally together, but they have used their experience playing together to steer their serene progress so far.

Elsewhere in the men’s competition, three of the four English pairs were knocked out of the competition in the Round of 12.

Instead, it was Norway and Finland who were left to fight for the remaining semi-final berths outside of the all-England clash and the Kjermperuds’ impressive progression with a 21-7, 21-17 victory.

The clash of the two Norwegian sides saw Håvard Solheim and Oscar Majak emerge victorious in three despite losing an epic second set 28-26 - the longest set of the tournament so far.

But Finland ensured three nations were represented in the semis as Pekka Piippo and Teppo Pulkkinen, who had earned their quarter-final spot earlier on in the day with a two-set win over England, secured a 21-15, 21-16 victory over Norway’s Stian Opsahl and Jørgen Nilsen.

In the women’s competition, meanwhile, Rachel Morrison and Kathryn Barbour advanced into the semis after a 15-9 tie-breaker against home nations rivals Beth Morgan and Alice Brand of England.

The duo are flying the flag high for Scotland as the country's only representatives and, as a non-NEVZA nation, the pair entered the competition as wildcards.

But they have excelled so far and took another step closer to the podium by bouncing back from the disappointment of losing the second set to come through in the decider 15-9 and ensure that three nations will also compete in the women’s last four.

In the final quarter-final match of the day, Nina Pavlova and Sunniva Helland-Hansen out-performed Finland's Essi Nirhamo and Elina Pirttimäki in a 21-17, 21-18 quarter-final success, hitting back hard after trailing 9-6 in the second set.

The Norwegian couple placed third in last week’s NEVZA Zonal Tour back on home turf and will now believe they can go all the way this time, with a rematch of their pool encounter with Bullen and Keefe next up.

Semi-final draws

Women’s here.

Men’s here.

Report by Beth Owen. Images by Simon Clarke.

View the NEVZA Beach England 2025 home page here.

Follow the day two and day three action live on the Volleyball England YouTube Channel here.