Brazil’s Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa/Victoria Pereira were crowned queens of the beach at the FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships in Larnaka, Cyprus in late July. The Brazilian teenagers overpowered the Netherlands’ Nika Daalderop/Mexime van Driel 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) in the gold medal match on Finikoudes Beach.

The 17-year old Duda claimed the FIVB U19 title for the third time in a row. She won the event in 2013 in Porto, Portugal with Taina Silva and in 2014 in Porto with Andressa Cavalcanti.

Brazil’s most talented youth player also holds the FIVB U21 title with Ana Patricia Silva (Lucerne, 2016) and won silver at the FIVB U23 with Thais Rodrigues (Myslowice, 2013). She also claimed two gold medals and a silver medal on this year’s FIVB World Tour and a bronze last year with Elize Maia.

The Duda/Ana Patricia tandem also won the gold medal at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games in China.

On the day after winning gold in Larnaka, Duda turned 18 and could not have been happier with her early birthday gift.

The Brazilian girls played aggressively and kept pushing the Dutch, speeding up the game with attacks and shots to the back.

The tactic worked, the Dutch girls could not get a grip on the match and most of the time were not able to get a clean hit because of the serving pressure.

The Dutch played their first FIVB international event and for Van Driel this was actually her first international medal. Daalderop won two gold medals at the CEV U20 in 2015 and 2016 with Joy Stubbe.

USA takes the bronze

Milica Mirkovic and 2014 U17 world champion Kathryn Plummer of the United States claimed the bronze medal at the 2016 FIVB U19 World Championships in twin sets over Brazil’s Vitoria Rodrigues/Ana Carolina Costa.

The Americans set aside their disappointment over losing to Duda/Victoria in the semifinals and came out playing strong to finish the match quickly.