2025 European Women's Senior Team Championship (Pula Golf, September 2-6)

Results, image gallery and additional information below, in the Related Content section

Spain finished in sixth position in the European Ladies Senior Team Championship held at Pula Golf, the renowned Mallorcan course that hosts numerous major tournaments.

The Spanish team, which lost to England in the quarterfinals – the eventual winner of the tournament – and then defeated the Netherlands in the next match, lost to Germany 2-3 in the final round of a tournament where the English team dominated Sweden 4-1 in the grand final.

Rocío Ruiz de Velasco, the Spanish captain, made changes to the order of play of the players with the intention of slowing down the German team's momentum. The German team was a very homogeneous group of recognized quality, and they soon demonstrated their accuracy and resilience in a tie where the individual matches exhibited a dynamic from the beginning that was later reflected in the score.

It happened in the duel of Macarena Campomanes against Kristina Eich, where the Madrid native, protagonist of the first individual match, acting as the vanguard, instead of being part of the last match as against the Netherlands, once again displayed her great quality.

Always ahead, with a small but ultimately inaccessible advantage for her German rival, Macarena Campomanes secured the first point for the Spanish team (2/1), completing an outstanding joint performance throughout the tournament.

Soledad Fernández de Araoz deserved the same path and description of her particular performance, who quickly overcame a small disadvantage against Franca Fehlauher to dominate with stony resistance a duel that she ended up winning 2/1.

Having secured two important points, Natalia Martínez-Reboredo and María de Orueta were left without options in the last two singles matches. Martínez-Reboredo could do little against the tremendous momentum of Sibylle Gabler (6/4), a similar fate, though slightly less severe, befell María Orueta, who lost her match 4/3 against Silvia Wilms.

Everything, therefore, depended on the outcome of the doubles match. María Castillo and Amelia Alonso, all grit and determination, never stopped fighting throughout the 18 holes in a tremendously tense duel that they managed to dominate at the halfway point before entering a phase of maximum equality, which lasted for several holes before Alexandra Kolker and Britta Schneider sealed the victory by 1 up on the last hole.

Spain overtakes the Netherlands with sheer courage in the fight for fifth place

A very appreciable dose of courage, necessary to overcome a very difficult situation, led Spain to beat the Netherlands 3-2 in the first match in the fight for fifth place in the European Senior Women's Team Championship.

With the untimely defeat to England in the quarterfinals still fresh in their minds, the Spanish team approached their new match with palpable energy. However, this positive attitude took time to translate into goals against the fierce opposition of their rivals from the first minute, who kept them on the edge for much of the game.

Not surprisingly, María de Orueta and María Castillo, in the doubles match, could do little against the hurricane of play displayed by Barbara Kerdel and Sandra Boer, one hole up on the 4th hole and 5 on the 11th - to give two significant examples - before obtaining the victory by 4/3.

The match between Amelia Alonso and Catryn Geleijnse had a similar development, abruptly tilting in favor of the Dutch side from the beginning to the end, with a 5/4 run to put the score 0-2 against Spain.

Faced with such a situation, the Spanish team only needed three wins in as many games, a very tense situation that, however, gradually cleared up in favor of the host team.

The feat began with Natalia Martínez-Reboredo hitting all the greens, very solid against Angie Nguyen, whom she dominated at will from the first hole before scoring a resounding 4/3 on the scoreboard.

Soledad Fernández Araoz followed, in her case overcoming some short, specific disadvantages before tying the duel on the 14th hole and convincingly sealing the deal in the final stretch, a 2/1 on the card that left everything pending the duel between Macarena Campomanes and Mignon Sanders.

The Spaniard, almost always trailing, with relatively short but increasingly worrying disadvantages, turned the score around with talent, patience and effort just when it hurts the opponent the most, in the last holes, crowning the 18th with a spectacular downhill putt that meant birdie and, incidentally, preventing her opponent from participating in an uncertain playoff.

Sweden and England, better than Switzerland (4-1) and France (3.5-1.5), compete in the grand final of this European Senior Women's Team Championship, while Spain faces Germany in the last qualifying round with fifth place at stake.