AVP MBO LIVED UP TO THE HYPE
The Manhattan Beach Open aka the “grandaddy of them all”. There is no other tournament quite like it. There is just a different feel about this tournament. You can sense it in the air as soon as you get down to the beach and we could not get to that smell fast enough.
After we left all our luggage at the hotel we were off the beach. But as a little side note, us trying to leave the luggage at the hotel was no easy task. Taryn went up to the lady at the counter to try and get the check in process started. She gave her the confirmation number, her last name, her mom’s last name, and nothing was working. Both Taryn and the lady were confused. This dilemma went on for a little bit, and then I stepped in to see if my confirmation number would work (Taryn’s mom and stepdad had a room and so did my parents). While the worker was searching for my reservation Taryn came to the realization that she accidentally booked the wrong Residence Inn. She booked one that was a lot closer to the airport. At this point Taryn was hungry and one lesson for everyone to learn is that you do not want to be around Taryn when she is hungry and a plan changes (lol sorry Taryn). She tried to call the hotel but was on hold for many minutes and once they answered they could not offer a refund. Here comes Queen Mary! While we were walking to towards the beach, Mary got the hotel on the phone and worked her magic to get them to refund the room. Taryn booked the Best Western which was basically right across the street from the correct Residence Inn… the day was back on track, and it was time to get some food.
📸: Ed Chan
We ate a fantastic breakfast at the Kettle (highly recommend to anyone going to Manhattan Beach) and then made our way down to the courts to watch the qualifier. We cheered some of our friends on, got a Paradise bowl of course, and then got in a little practice before the big day. After practice we went and picked up credentials, ordered an uber, and went back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner.
Fritto Misto is an amazing Italian restaurant in Hermosa Beach. I am pretty sure I have eaten there before every single California tournament that I have ever played in (may be an exaggeration). Taryn’s hometown friend joined me, Taryn, Drew, Mary, and one of Drew and Mary’s hometown friend. We talked and laughed as we loaded our mouths with the delicious pasta to carbload before gameday.
Gameday… Taryn’s first MBO and only my 2nd time in the main draw. The excitement was there. We woke up before our alarm went off, got dressed, and headed down to breakfast. If you know me, you know I absolutely loveee hotel breakfast and not like the fancy hotel breakfast but like the fake eggs and waffle maker breakfast. I was in my glory eating my eggs, toast and waffle. We were properly fueled and ready to go. Our first opponent would be a familiar one… Brok/Morris. They play for FAU, and we had played them this past season. We had some first game jitters but were ultimately able to come out on top in straight sets 21-12 & 21-17. Our second game of the day came a couple hours later against a veteran team Shaw/Ponnet. I had been watching them play over the past couple of years, so I know they had experience. However, we went into it like every other game, knowing that if we play our game then we could compete. We did just that and came out victorious in straight sets 21-12 & 21-15.
Our games were early so we had a lot of time to shower, rest up and recover for Saturday (otherwise known as the day that we play Olympic gold medalists - I’ll get to that later). One of the big perks of Taryn’s mom and stepdad being there is that they are both amazing chiropractors. They know how to get us feeling good for the next day. After we were done with treatment, we made our way to the Residence Inn where the rest of our family and friends were. We sat around the pool to eat and talk and of course watch them all enjoy some alcoholic refreshments while we downed water. We were exhausted and crashed pretty early knowing we had a big day ahead of us.
📸: @AGamePhoto
Breakfast time again! This morning was a little different than most our mornings… Taryn and I were in different locations (shocking I know). I stayed at the Residence Inn with one of my best friend’s parents Mr.Joey and Mrs.Kathy because they so kindly offered up the extra bed in their room, and Taryn stayed with her mom at the Best Western. This was the first time that we didn’t stay in the same room before a tournament. So with that being said, I woke up, got dressed, and made my walk across the street to have breakfast with Taryn. We couldn’t not have breakfast together, it just felt too wrong. We both had our same breakfast as the day before and were ready to go trying to let the fact that we were about to play April Ross and Alix Klineman in less than 2 hours escape our minds. Our uber driver aka Mr. Joey Davenport (the same Mr.Joey from above) aka our Juber for the weekend shuttled us and everyone else to the courts. Let’s just say this was a game changer considering our hotel was about a 28min walk from the courts. We got to the courts and again just kept trying to play it cool. We did our usual warmup, but you could just feel the nerves building up with every minute that the huge timer on the court counted down. They call for captains and there I am just casually standing across from a 3-time Olympic medalist. Needless to say we were a little star struck and it was very evident in our first set getting our butt’s kicked 21-9. We made errors left and right that we never make. It was all just nervous, uncharacteristic mistakes. I mean when you are standing there in serve receive with your hands on your knees and you look across the net and see Alix Klineman standing there, it’s just kind of like a woah moment. We had been following their Olympic run sitting on the couch being like we want to play them, and that moment actually happened. We got over that initial shock and settled in during the set, giving them a test but ultimately came up short 21-19. It was bounce back time.
📸: AGamePhoto
In our first elimination game we would face a familiar team in Sweat/Mewhirter who we had played in the finals of Atlantic City. We knew they were coming for some revenge, but we knew we weren’t ready for the tournament to be over. We started slow and our final push down the stretch just wasn’t enough. We came up short losing 23-21. It was time to fight. I got angry. I did not want to lose and neither did Taryn. We came out on fire in the second set which helped lead to a 21-13 victory. Set 3… anything can happen. We again jumped out to a big lead forcing an early timeout but knew they were not going to go down easily and that they didn’t. The set got tight in crunch time, but we were able to pull away winning 15-12. One more game and we were into Sunday of MBO.
We did not have much time between games so all we had to do was try and get as much food as possible into our bodies. We enjoyed a nice PB&J and banana with pb in the athlete tent and before we knew it we had to be on the court. We had to win 2 sets against Quiggle/Hartong to make it to Sunday. We were determined and that determination led to a straight set victory of 21-17 & 21-17.
Again, rest and recovery were going to be key. We got more treatment in the evening and then DoorDashed some delicious BBQ for dinner by the pool. We were again exhausted and headed to bed pretty early since like the previous day we had the early game on Stadium Court.
The rematch between Claes/Sponcil could not have been a better first set. When I say it was a battle, I mean it was a battle. So much so that we just wanted to play two sets in one going 39-37 which is apparently the highest scoring women’s set in AVP history. It went back and forth, crazy rally after crazy rally. Both teams just refused to give up. Unfortunately for us, we came out on the wrong side. Just could not capitalize on a couple points. We tried to fight back in the second set, but all our energy was drained. And just like that our MBO had come to an end with a 5th place finish. In the moment, you are not super happy about it but since a day has passed, we are obviously super proud of it. We got knocked out by the two Olympic teams. You cannot win them all, but you can most definitely learn something every time and that we did. We know what we can work on and improve.
After a loss, talking to Taryn and I is probably the last thing you want to do so we escaped all of family and friends by heading to the player’s tent. We just needed some time to process and cool off. However, we did receive some good news! Following the match we received a text from Travis Mewhirter, saying he had some news for us. We met up with him, Katie Spieler, and Jon Mesko and boy did they have some good news… they informed us that we were one of the recipients of the Eric Zaun award. Zaun was a great volleyball player but even more importantly a better person who sadly passed away a couple years ago. Travis, Katie and Jon created the Eric Zaun award to provide up and coming beach volleyball players with a little bit of cash since a lot of us know beach volleyball is not very lucrative. We could not be more thankful for this honor!
After receiving this honor, we realized we had not really eaten much and while in California you just must get a Paradise Bowl every day, so we continued that tradition and made our way in that direction. In the meantime, our group was at Shellback’s having a drink. We joined them and I was able to enjoy a nice Michelob Ultra. After our drink, we made our way to the beach to watch my nephew Bailey and Mr.Joey “surf”. I put surf in quotes because it was their first time… I’ll let you picture that. I will say they definitely got better, and I have never done it so I cannot really say much! Once they were done, we made our way up to Simmzy’s for some delicious burgers and then had to stop and get a treat from the Creamery. We all decided to then take a nice stroll down the strand to Hermosa Beach. On the walk back, it felt like I had gotten hit by a brick wall. All the aches and pains came alive. I was dead and exhausted, and it was most definitely time for me to shower all the dark, gross sand off my body.
This next and last part of the story is by far the highlight of my weekend, and it had nothing to do with volleyball. We went to dinner with most of the group that had been supporting us all weekend and man are Taryn and I lucky. This group of people could not be more special. We absolutely laughed our butt’s off. Between margaritas, heaters, and the highs and lows of the weekend, I can’t tell you the last time I have laughed harder. Everyone was cutting up and unfortunately it truly was a “you had to be there moment” to truly understand how good of a time we had but believe me you should take my word for it when I say… we had a GREAT time. Before you know it, you may see some new TKN shirts being sported by this group that say, “They [TKN] are fun to watch, but we are fun to hang out with.”
By: Kristen Nuss
