Another Huge Year for Team Vanuatu and Volleyball Development

2025 End-of-Year Wrap

Another busy year draws to a close for the Vanuatu Volleyball Federation (VVF) with much good work done in the elite performance program, with the National Women’s Beach team competing in 13 events internationally, with the highlight of these being the Gold-medal performance at the Pacific Mini Games in Palau in July, as well as some promising international performances by our U18 Girls Youth Development squad.

Much more the constant than the exception, with each passing year VVFs various programs face ongoing challenges, as well as enhancements and successes, with valuable lessons learned from each of these.

For the High-Performance program, the National beach volleyball team showed its ability to adapt and build on its various achievements under the relatively new guidance of longtime VVF BV ‘queen’ Miller Pata, who officially took on the national coaching role in 2024 and settled into it seamlessly.

Across 2025, Team Vanuatu women played in Australia, New Zealand, Taipei, Korea, Philippines, Vietnam, China, Palau and the US.

The year kicked off with a week-long Development Training Camp at the Stade courts in Port Vila in late January, where potential representative players, including an U18 Youth cohort – with a view to the Oceania Championships scheduled for mid-year – were tested across skills on the court as well as attitude and aptitude off the court.

Through February and March, there were visits to our larger regional neighbours in what has become an annual tradition, participating in selected tournaments as part of both the New Zealand and Australian Summer beach tour programs.

Bella Lawac partnered with veteran Linline Matauatu in 3 events in New Zealand, taking second place in Auckland and reaching the Quarter Finals in the FIVB Beach Pro Tour Futures event in Mt Maunganui.

Crossing the ditch in late March, Team Vanuatu – now with Sherysyn Toko joining Bella and re-establishing the #1 playing pair – were also joined by the Youth Team players Jennifer Tom & Monick John who were competing in the Australian Youth U18 Beach Volleyball Championship (24-27 March), while the senior pair were on the sand for another FIVB Futures Pro Beach Tour event (27 to 30 March).

Both tournaments were part of Volleyball Australia’s #VolleySlam event that saw hundreds of teams competing across four tournaments over 10 days, including the Youth U18 champs and the international FIVB Futures event, all at Coolangatta Beach in Queensland.

Jennifer & Monick, participating at their first event internationally, put up some very strong results, building as they progressed through the tournament, in what became a huge learning experience for the teens. As for the senior women, they reached the quarter final, going down in their first loss of the Futures tournament, in a hard fought 3 set battle against a US pair.

While that Team Vanuatu contingent wrapped up its Australian visit, assistant national coach Manu Maki, took another representative Youth Girls pair to Honiara for the Oceania U18 Champs (6-10 April). Karol Suvtekmag and Rahanna Taribakeo were also looking to gain experience and fly Vanuatu’s flag, continuing the tradition of beach volleyball excellence internationally. The pair finished 4^th after a Bronze-medal playoff against American Samoa.

Over the following weeks, the senior women’s team then toured Asia, competing in FIVE international events. Tini, Bella and Miller first headed to Vietnam for an Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) tour event, then to the Philippines and finally China.

In Vietnam they made it to the Round of 16, while in Nuvali – their first time competing in the Philippines – they reached the Round of 12 in what was an FIVB BPT Futures event, losing to a local pair.

Finishing this tour with three events in China, there were early exits from the tournaments in Pingtan (AVC event) and Xiamen, an FIVB Challenger event, but the team finished with a bang in Wuhan Qingshan at the FIVB BPT Futures taking 3^rd place, winning the bronze medal.

While all this was happening, development work for the Vanuatu Men’s team was underway in Solomon Islands, ahead of the Pacific Mini Games, at a Beach Volleyball Training Camp  which brought athletes together to train but also to grow not just as players, but as leaders and proud Pacific people.

In Port Vila, a second U18 Youth Camp (19-23 May) was delivered, continuing the youth development program, with coaches Manu Maki and Stiv Banga taking 12 aspiring young athletes through different sessions, including on-court sessions, strength and conditioning, nutrition, mindset workshops, team building activities and, of course, game play!

Capacity development of staff is also always a focus, so it was a real highlight when Manu Maki was invited to participate in a Coaching Course in Morocco in June.

Mid-year and of course, the highlight on all Pacific athletes’ calendars was to represent your nation at the Pacific Mini Games, this year being held in Palau.

The Vanuatu Beach Volleyball squad headed to the PMG Palau 2025, with great excitement around a new addition to the Men’s team, 19-year-old Fletcher Abel. Adding to the excitement was the selection of VVFs own Stivano Banga as a flag bearer for the Opening Ceremony, one of the two Flag Bearers for Palau2025 Team Vanuatu alongside Veronica Tari (Vanuatu Judo).

The new-look men’s team was put to the test in their tournament, finishing in the Rnd of 12, defeated by the team from the Northern Marianas which went on to win the silver medal.

The Vanuatu Women remained undefeated throughout, taking the Gold medal in straight sets over the Australian pairing of Mears and Raynor.

An emerging trend, as part of Pacific sports culture around major events now, is the addition of capacity building workshops, and at these Games in Palau, an AVC Beach Volleyball Referee course was delivered which VVFs Stanley Toa and Sharon Toto attended.

In what became the pattern for this year, the Team Vanuatu BV women did not pause after Palau, but kept rolling through their representative 2025 agenda, heading to Chinese Taipei for the AVC Pingtung Open (17-20 July). Bella, Tini and Coach Miller were looking to use the momentum from Palau for this event, making it to Day 3, but ultimately falling at the Quarter finals hurdle, losing to the tournament’s #1 seeded Australian pair.

And with that, the National Women’s team headed home in late July for a quick rest, after a couple of months on the road, before heading to South Korea to continue their international playing year.

Always keen for the collaboration with the Aussies, Tini and Bella with national assistant coach Manu Maki, while heading to the FIVB BPT Futures event in Busan Gwangalli, Korea, took the opportunity for a quick training stopover in Brisbane, before continuing on to Korea. Again, they put in a strong performance there reaching the bronze medal match, going down to the Czech pair in 3 hard fought sets, maintaining a consistent level of performance on the international stage.

Much of the team’s efforts had been aimed at the final few months of 2025, with a special focus on qualifying for the World BV Championships, which were due to take place in South Australia in November.

While ultimately not qualifying for the World Champs, the women’s team took a huge final step to round out 2025 with a trip to the USA to compete in an FIVB BPT Futures event in Florida in December.

A big ask after a busy year, but as is their way, Tini Toko and Bella Lawac, led well by coach Miller Pata and assistant coach Manu Maki, worked hard, reaching another Quarter Finals match, going down to one of the local US pairs, which went on to take the tournament win.

An outstanding effort by the representative teams and the VVF management to facilitate participation in 15 events overall, across 11 months of 2025, for both the senior and youth contingent, underlining the continual progression and development of the High-Performance program, which makes Vanuatu Volleyball one of the most respected programs in Oceania and across the international volleyball landscape.

Looking ahead to 2026, there is no rest as the beach volleyball calendar year starts anew, with participation in both Australia and New Zealand’s summer tour and FIVB events anticipated, and with a definite plan to return to the Australian Youth (U18) Championships in March for our young development players.

As always, VVF owes much of its capacity to develop teams and their achievements, to the ongoing and unwavering support of major sponsors, partners and stakeholders, with a special mention to Titan FX Vanuatu, which supports both the national team and the weekly After School Program, and to the Australian government’s Pacific Aus Sports initiative, all helping as a part of working towards developing youth into the future, at both community and high-performance levels.