USA’s Torrey Van Winden and Lindsey Sparks added a new milestone to their 2026 run on Sunday, winning their first Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour gold by topping the podium at the Geneva Futures in Switzerland. The American duo went unbeaten through five matches and finished the week with back-to-back three-set wins, first in an all-USA semifinal and then in a comeback victory over the home favorites in the final.
Switzerland’s Annique Niederhauser and Menia Bentele earned silver on home sand, while another U.S. team—Tambre Nobles and Clara Stowell—completed the podium with bronze after a three-set turnaround of their own.
How Van Winden and Sparks sealed their first Beach Pro Tour gold
Van Winden and Sparks’ Geneva title continued a consistent 2026 pattern: they have medaled at every international event they have appeared at this season. Their year began with a NORCECA Beach Volleyball Tour gold in San Jose, Costa Rica, before they stepped onto the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour and immediately reached the podium.
As a duo on the Beach Pro Tour, they opened with a silver medal at the Sveti Vlas Futures in Bulgaria in early June, then matched that result at last week’s Spiez Futures in Switzerland. In Geneva, they elevated again—winning all five matches they played and turning their season-long momentum into their first Futures title on the tour.
Their semifinal was a tight three-set battle against ninth-seeded compatriots Nobles and Stowell. Van Winden and Sparks, seeded second, edged the opener 22-20, dropped the second 18-21, and closed out the decider 15-11 to book their place in the gold-medal match with a 2-1 win.
In the final, they faced bracket leaders Niederhauser and Bentele and had to do it the hard way. The Swiss pair took the first set 21-17, putting the Americans under pressure. Van Winden and Sparks responded by narrowly taking the second set 21-19 to force a third, then completed the comeback with a 15-12 win in the deciding set for a 2-1 (17-21, 21-19, 15-12) victory—an upset that denied the home team gold.
For Niederhauser and Bentele, the silver medal was still a significant result. They reached the final by winning their semifinal in straight sets, defeating eighth-seeded Eva Liisa Kuivonen and Liisa-Lotta Jurgenson 2-0 (24-22, 21-10). The win also served as payback after what the report noted was the only loss the Swiss pair suffered on their way to the final.
The Geneva silver marked the team’s second Beach Pro Tour medal. Their first was also a silver, earned at last year’s Messina Futures.
Nobles and Stowell, meanwhile, left Switzerland with their first Beach Pro Tour hardware. After falling in the semifinal to Van Winden and Sparks, they rebounded in the bronze-medal match with a three-set comeback win over the Estonian duo of Kuivonen and Jurgenson, taking the match 2-1 (13-21, 22-20, 15-12). The result was described as revenge for a pool defeat earlier in the tournament.
Geneva Futures field and what’s next on the Beach Pro Tour
The women’s Geneva Futures featured 25 duos from 11 different countries, underlining the depth of the Futures level on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour.
Next on the Futures calendar are stops in Hangzhou, China; Balikesir, Turkiye; Bridlington, United Kingdom; and a return to Geneva, Switzerland for the men’s tournament, scheduled for June 25 to 28.