Liv and Shaunna are now entered in the Elite 16 in Quintana Roo, Mexico! 

Their Qualification Round starts tomorrow in Mexico on the 26th March | Follow to watch and see results Here

Heading into the tournament, Coach Jason Lochhead told us... 

"It's always a risk going to big events on the reserve list, but you have to take the opportunities when you get them and you miss out for sure if you don't come. We're excited to put ourselves in this position and we're looking forward to taking advantage of it"

Best of Luck to the Wāhine and Coach Jase!! 

Our High-Performance Beach Volleyball athletes and coach Jason Lochhead are gearing up for an action-packed 2025 season!

With a series of international competitions ahead, this year will be all about building towards the World Championships in Adelaide at the end of the year. Check out the full schedule below, and don’t forget to follow their journey on social media, links can be found at the end of this article!

Shaunna Polley / Liv MacDonald 

Ben O'Dea / Brad Fuller 

Ben O'Dea / Jack McManaway 

Follow the athletes and their Journeys through Social Media below 

Instagram - Olivia MacDonald

Instagram - Shaunna Polley

Instagram - Ben and Brad 

The Beach Ferns Olympic dream is over after Saturday night’s tense semi-final loss to Continental Cup hosts China in Ningbo.

Oliva Macdonald and Danielle Quigley were beaten 21-11, 21-13 by Sh. T. Cao/Zhu Lingdi before Alice Zeimann and Shaunna Polley got Aotearoa on the board with a 21-18, 21-18 win over J. Zh. Wang/J. Dong.

The decisive third match saw Zeimann and Polley faced up to Sh. T. Cao/J. Dong for a berth in the final against Japan.

In a very tight contest, the Chinese took the first set 23-21 before the Kiwis rebounded to edge the second set 24-22. The match could have gone either way in a see-saw third set, but the hosts eventually prevailed 15-13.

China progress to the final against Japan for a berth at the Paris Olympics.

The Beach Ferns reached the semi-final thanks to a 2-0 victory over Vanuatu on Friday. Olivia Macdonald and Danielle Quigley were first-up 21-15, 21-15 winners over Joe/Matauatu before Alice Zeimann and Shaunna Polley claimed a 21-17, 21-17 victory over Toko/Lawac.

Beach Blacks

The Beach Blacks’ hopes of Olympic qualification ended on Friday after a 2-1 loss to Indonesia.

Brad Fuller and Ben O'Dea fought hard in the decider of the Beach Blacks' Continental Cup quarter-final but ultimately fell 2-1 to Indonesia on Friday night.

The Kiwis battled back from a set down, claiming a thrilling second set 26-24 but Bintang/Sofyan clinched a place in the semi-final for their country with a 15-11 third-set win.

Earlier, O’Dea and Fuller were 2-0 winners in their match with Jack McManaway and Tom Reid edged 2-1 in their clash to set up the decider.

The men’s final will be contested between Australia and China.

High Performance Coach Jason Lochhead said "sport can be brutal, but if it wasn't then the wins wouldn't feel as good.

"I'm proud of the effort everyone put into this run. We played some great volleyball but just a couple of things didn't go our way and sometimes it's just not your day.

"It hurts that it was on this day but we will come back stronger."

New Zealand takes aim at a spot at the Paris Olympics in beach volleyball on Friday with the Beach Ferns and Beach Blacks in action in Phase 3 of the Continental Cup in China.

The event, held in Ningbo, is the last phase of the qualification journey within the Asian Volleyball Confederation where both teams will compete in a playoff bracket format with eight nations involved.

The winning country in each gender will qualify via the FIVB pathway for a place at the Paris Olympics in July-August.

New Zealand’s last appearance at the Olympic Games came in 1996 in Atlanta – the Hamilton Brothers Glenn and Reid flying the flag for Aotearoa. A women’s team have never qualified for the Olympics.

Both teams have been working hard to earn the fern for the games with a recent training block in Los Angeles and Head Coach Jason Lochhead says the preparation for the group has been excellent.

“Being in LA training in deep sand and warm climate was great for our teams,” Lochhead said.

“They all feel like they're flying around the courts. Training for the men, the highlight ones were the Crabb/Sanders team and the number one USA combo of Benesh/Partain who are going to the Olympics.

“The women got to train against Tokyo Gold medallists Ross/Klineman and Scoles/Flint. With a bunch of other USA teams in there as well.

“We wanted to get our players a look at as many different styles as possible to get them making in game adjustments.

“Our squad is confident and ready to get after this final stage and make history.”

You can follow the action from China via streaming coverage here:

- Centre Court
- Court 2

Volleyball New Zealand thanks both FIVB (coach support) and High Performance Sport NZ (programme support) for the Olympic qualification campaign.

Beach Ferns & Beach Blacks - Continental Cup 2024
Ningbo, China
June 21-23

Beach Ferns

• Alice Zeimann and Shaunna Polley
• Olivia Macdonald and Danielle Quigley

Beach Blacks

• Jack McManaway and Thomas Reid
• Ben O’Dea and Bradley Fuller

Management staff
Head Coach: Jason Lochhead
Assistant Coach: Craig Seuseu
Physiotherapist: Brad Takai