CHAMPAGNE SHOWERS NEVER GET OLD. LA PAZ GOLD.
📸: Beach Volleyball World
We arrived into La Paz International airport at 4:18pm Monday, March 13 with transportation waiting for us. It’s so nice when you are in the main draw and you know they will provide transportation. Our flight to La Paz pretty much had half the tournament on it, so our bus to the hotel was pretty packed. We stupidly (my bad) let everyone else off the bus before us, so when we walked into the hotel lobby we were last in a long line to check in. After a long travel day our patience level was pretty low. We finally were given room keys, so we brought our bags up, quickly freshened up and then hit the boardwalk/strand for a short 8 min walk to a dinner spot that I had found called Vrentino Restaurant. This place had a ton of good reviews; however, they were all about their breakfast. I figured it would still be good for dinner. We should have known it was not going to be great service when we walked in and were seated but no one came to our table to bring menus or anything for a solid 15 minutes. Needless to say we waited over an hour for our food to come out. What we thought was going to be a quick dinner then shower and bed turned into a 2 hour dinner, later shower and bed. We were not thrilled.
We made it back to our not so aesthetically pleasing hotel room. It was probably the worst hotel room that we have stayed in thus far. Keep in mind this was the host hotel for the tournament. While showering I was doing some serious thinking about how other professional athletes get treated. I feel like we are constantly posting on social media or on our vlog about a lot of the positives of this sport but while in the shower that night I felt very strongly about this so I’m going to rant for a minute. [I know we have only been on tour for not even a whole year, so I (we) do not have a lot of room to talk but I’m going to anyway. I also know that this tournament is a challenge event and not an elite 16 but again I am still going to rant. The hotel room looks like a place that would have bed bugs, the air conditioning control panel was falling off the wall, the knob to turn on the shower was not connected to the wall, the shower head barely made it to Taryn’s shoulder, there were numerous unknown spots on the walls, and the towels seemed more dirty than clean. I know we are very fortunate to live in the USA and our standards may be higher than most, but I bet other professional athletes have these same standards when traveling to compete in international tournaments. Additionally, if you are not aware the tournament only covers the cost the night before the main draw begins so our three nights that we stayed were on our expense and I think it was a little more expensive than what the hotel room deserved. With all this being said, I know beach volleyball is not bringing in a ton of money and a lot of people do not watch. We have to do something about that. How can we get more people to watch? How can we get more sponsors involved? How can we elevate the players experiences? Yes, being a pro beach volleyball player is amazing and I absolutely love it, but I think we need to talk about these things a little more. I think it can be so much more than what it is now. It’s not always sunshine and rainbows. Again, I want it to be clear… I love what I do, I am very grateful, but I just know we (beach volleyball as a whole) can be worth so much more than it currently is. I don’t have the answers but I know something can be done.]
Thankfully, breakfast was included so we went down to enjoy our first Mexican breakfast. We hit a gas station near our hotel after to stock up on waters and then made our way to a gym for a quick leg workout. The gym at our hotel only had 3 treadmills and 1 bike so luckily, the USA strength coach’s hotel had a small gym with dumbbells. For lunch, we figured we would give our dinner restaurant another shot since everyone said breakfast was delicious there. Glad we did, the difference was night and day. The service was sooo much better and the food was delicious!! I had been craving a croque madame ever since we went to Paris last year, so when the menu said that’s what they were known for I pulled the trigger and for the first time ever, I think, Taryn and I did not share or as we like to call it splitzy.
The tournament provided transportation to and from the venue and hotel, and in true Mexican fashion it was a party bus… roof off and music blaring from 8am to 10pm. We had practice with the Italian team of Gottardi/Menegatti. It went like all of our other pre tourney practices… rough. The sand was more like mini rocks and pretty shallow. I was not thrilled thinking about all the diving I was about to be doing. My thoughts the whole time, my poor knees and elbows.
It was Jake’s birthday on Tuesday so we decided to go to a fancier restaurant to celebrate. It was recommended to us by non other than Tim Brewster and thankfully he did. The view and the food were delicious! The restaurant sang happy birthday to a very uncomfortable Jake. It was great!
Wednesday morning we headed to practice with my humps blaring in the bus at 9:30am. It was a great way to wake up and get ready for our quick 30 minute practice with just ourselves. We hit a popular coffee shop called Doce Cuarenta Coffee & Bakery for lunch. I didn’t particularly love the coffee but the food and the smell of cinnamon rolls really did it for me. We decided that we would go back to get the cinnamon roll only if we won… we love making food our incentive! For the rest of the day we hit different restaurants to work, read, and talk to people on the phone before heading to dinner at Claros Fish Jr., a popular authentic Mexican place recommended to us by one of our Uber drivers. We tried different tacos… smoked marlin, surf & turf, grilled shrimp & chicken, and crunchy fish which were all delicious! Yes, Taryn also tried all of those seafood ones… crazy! We stuffed ourselves so we figured a nice 2 mile walk back to our hotel along the beautiful sunset strand was needed. That walk was gorgeous. It was perfect timing for the sunset and a nice temperature.
For a final tune up before the event started, we practiced with Ishii/Mizoe from Japan. Not sure how else to describe them besides saying they are just the cutest freaking people ever. We had been trying to practice with each other at past tournaments but it just never worked out, but this time we were able to make it happen. After, we hit an adorable little coffee shop called Casanova off the main street for some chill time out of the sun and our hotel. The owners boyfriend saw that we had posted on our instagram and that we were there for the volleyball tournament, so he came and introduced himself and told us the awesome story about the place. He also gave us a free drink coupon, and we took pictures with the all women-friendly staff! After watching some volleyball on my iPad, we hit a different spot called sweet and fit for some breakfast/lunch. We of course split a breakfast item and a lunch item and then headed back to our hotel to chill before our check in meeting back at the venue.
The rest of the evening was pretty chill… watching volleyball, going to the hotel restaurant for the provided dinner, doing some reading, and drinking a ton of water in preparation for the steamy conditions that lied ahead.
Match #1 vs “the USA destroyers” from Paraguay Erika/Michelle. They were given this name because they eliminated two American teams in the qualifier. We were determined to not make it a third. About 8 points into the match Taryn jump served, ran up to the net, got a block, they covered it and then got another block and she turns to me after and says, “I just threw up in my mouth.” After that we really settled in, and we were able to NOT March Madness it and escape the upset.
For international tournaments we rarely have family and friends there, but that was not the case in our neighbor country. Some of Taryn’s family was able to make the trip and they were GAME CHANGERS. We were able to go to lunch with them before our second match of the day, and the food was significantly better than what the tournament was providing us.
Match #2 was of course against some fellow Americans Stockman/Kraft with a friendly visit from a dog. If you were not watching we had to stop the game for a couple minutes because a dog was just wandering around the court. The volunteer was trying to move him but every time he did the dog would just lay down. After about 5 minutes, he finally just picked the dog up and the game was able to continue. We (I) really like to put our backs against the wall whenever we play them. We came back from a 17-20 deficit. The feed on VBTV apparently cut out during this crucial moment so I’ll sum it up for you.. we fought off set point after set point in LARGE part to Taryn’s monstrous jump serve. She was hammering balls into the wind making it very challenging for them to be in system. We survived and solidified our top seed into the round of 16. We hopped on the transport bus and made our way back to the hotel, but we ran into a slight issue… the bus broke down right before we made it to the hotel. Everything just went silent and the drivers just started speaking to each other in Spanish with concerned looks on their faces. We got off and thankfully made the easy 3 min walk to the hotel. The rest of the evening was rather boring - shower, chill, read, etc… you know the usual by now.
Single elimination rounds! Match #3 was against a surprise team from Lithuania Paulikiene/Raupelyte. The blocker was a long 6’6” and the defender was super scrappy. We came out flat and dropped the first set. We shook it off, kept our confidence and trust, and rallied back to take it in 3. Bring on our round of death… the quarterfinals.
On our transport bus back to the venue for our late night matchup against France’s Placette/Richard, the bus again stalled. All the players just started looking around like uh oh, but all was good this time. It started right back up and the music started blaring again on the party bus… it was game time. The atmosphere at the venue was absolutely amazing. Music was bumping, fans were engaged and the lights were on (for the most part). A little before the tech in the first set, some of the lights went out. We talked with the refs and established that the game would not be played unless all the lights were on. After a brief couple minutes the court was fully lit for the time being. At random points a couple of them would just go out. It was quite frustrating to have play keep being stopped, and to have a light flicker mid approach. When the head ref at the tournament came to the court we established that if the lights flickered during a play it would be replayed… well, during a point the lights flickered, I immediately went to the ref and said they flickered, she said she didn’t see it, so no point was replayed… makes sense. Taryn kept telling me to calm down because I was getting a little heated, but my rage of the absurdity fueled me to wake up and actually play the volleyball that I know how to play. I told Taryn as we were walking out to the court to begin the third set, “that right side is about to have a rough game.” We were locked in, made some plays, and pulled out the W to advance to the semifinals. No 5th for us this time.
Match #5 against the Brazilian’s . A country that we have struggled with in the past. Their style of play, especially defense is very impressive across the board, and like our previous two matches I struggled big time in the first set. Sooo many errors. I just kept being like Kristen, what are your doing?! But like the previous, we came out a different team in the 2nd and 3rd sets. I apologize to everyones’ hearts. Really hope less 3rd sets are in our future. Your heart and my body would greatly appreciate that. Finals bound!
We had kind of a quick turnaround, but we again were able to go to a scrumptious lunch with Taryn’s crew. We did not have a ton of time though. I just kept thinking I have to get back to the hotel to put my legs up, hydrate with the electrolytes we had in the room and get ready for the match, so when I saw the transport bus in the reflection of the mirror I took off with no words said and no other things on my mind other than stop the bus. My mom would be so disappointed in me. It was so incredibly rude, but I apologized profusely to them (and will every time I see them again - I’M SO SORRY JONES FAMILY!) but the bus only came every 30 minutes.
Match #6 - USA vs USA. Tigers vs Tigers. Toni/Savvy had fought their way through the qualifier to make it to the finals, a route that we are familiar with (Kusadasi, Turkey), so we knew it was going to be a battle. We came into this tournament with 1 outcome in mind and it was with a gold medal around our neck. Less than that would have been a disappointment. You might think that adds a lot of pressure but I think for this tournament in particular we walked in with a ton of confidence and trust in our game. We had gotten a solid 2 weeks of training in at home and like drew said on our last day, “go unleash” and that is what we did. We saved our best volleyball for last.
After signing numerous autographs and taking numerous pictures we made it onto the transport bus which consisted of us, one other coach, two volunteers and the bus driver. Midway through the 10 min drive the volunteer walked up the driver and said something in Spanish. Shortly after, “we are the champions” was being blasted over the speakers. We enjoyed every minute of it. We quickly showered off the sand and dust and made our way back to the venue for the podium celebrations. Champagne showers from the highest podium… a feeling and moment that will never ever get old.
📸: Beach Volleyball World
By: Kristen Nuss
