FT.LAUDERDALE —> LEARNING & GROWING
As I was packing up for our quick flight over to Fort Lauderdale, FL I quickly realized that I have completely forgotten how to pack for such a short trip to play beach volleyball. We are used to trucking our massive OGIO checked bags with enough room to pack extra clothes and a couple of people inside. This time we were only doing carry-ons so we could get to the airport later and spend as little time as possible sitting around. We have spent far too much time in airports so whenever we can cut off 10-20 minutes, we do! Leading up to our excursion to Fort Lauderdale we had to once again put away our Mikasa balls and train with our Wilson balls. For those that don’t know, the balls are in fact very different, and switching back and forth does add another challenge to the game.
As we were flying high in the sky, Kristen who gets a little plane anxiety and who prefers the window seat, was sitting in her seat and suddenly, a piece of the plane just falls off and lands on her. Please see the picture to the left.
For someone who is already scared of flying, holding a piece of the plane surely helps ease that anxiety... ha. The rest of the quick 1.5-hour flight was uneventful as we opened our books and got lost in the words. We have been on a big reading kick with all of our spare time on the flights, so please send your recommendations our way! For the first time in a while, we landed AHEAD of schedule! We were pleasantly surprised and got into the Uber and found our way to the player’s hotel. This hotel and the surrounding beach were littered with young beach volleyball talents as the junior championships were finishing up on Thursday afternoon. We tried to check in but with all the athletes and their families, there were no rooms available. Just as we found out we couldn’t get a room yet, my best friend Kenzie from Creighton University, flew down to Florida to support Kristen and me. We are all great friends now which is amazing, Kristen even came to Kenzie’s wedding in February.
Note to younger players: when you are trying to decide which school you want to attend, I would urge you to look at the people, you never know how much your teammates and friends can impact your life. Look at the school and take away the sport that you want to play there, would you still be happy and love it there? If so, then that is the place for you!
Anyway, we went to grab some lunch and although the food was unimpressive the company was impossible to beat! We were headed back to the hotel and that night we had a great dinner with everyone that came to support us this weekend. After dinner, we rushed to the hotel to have a watch party. AVP Uncovered did a phenomenal job with the first episode that was released. However, we might be biased because the guys that put this together are truly incredible and dumped hours and hours of their time into this production! *Check it out below* The next episode will be released on Thursday, August 4th, right before AVP Atlanta where it all began for us!
What do we do with our downtime in the hotel room when we have to stay inside and rest but don’t want to be stationary? I’m so happy you asked, we have a couple of things on rotation until we come up with something else! We have a new competition going on with the card game of King’s corner, I will not release who is in the lead, just ask Kristen about it! At the end of the weekend, the loser has to do a task for the week that the other person doesn’t want to do! This weekend, Kristen challenged me and my foot-eye coordination with some soccer touches. Although I almost broke everything in the room while trying to learn, it gave us something to do, and for Kristen, something to laugh at.
Now we get to play some volleyball! We went down to get some breakfast and it was late so luckily there was a small place in the lobby for us to grab some food before we hopped on the court to play our friends, Katie Dickens (also an LSU Tiger) and her partner Jen Keddy. The entire match we were just having a blast chatting through the net after some good plays. Kristen even ended the game on a trickle ace serve and those two were calling for a replay! It is so great to have these games where everyone is out there having a good time and competing on a beach in a different state with our friends! Time for lunch and another game. The food was late, again. Let me tell you, there is nothing worse than being hot, tired, and expecting there to be food in the player's tent only to find out that it is 2 hours behind and you have another match to prepare for! There was a slew of hangry beach volleyball players ready to dig in when the food finally did arrive!
Game number 2, Lili and Larissa, the Brazilian team that we always seem to go 3 sets with! They do not make errors and they are a solid veteran team with so much experience, I think all four of us love this match-up. After an abundance of horn honking from their fans and screams from our fans we came up victorious in the third set and we made it to Championship Sunday! The final point of the game is very entertaining, I would encourage you to go watch it on Facebook. Please watch my favorite person, Georgie, at the end of the video. Shoutout to Georgie Nuss for commentating, everyone seems to love him and what he has to say during the matches.
If you are taking the time to rewatch the game, yes, there are too many missed serves to count. However, we intentionally worked on our serves in pressure situations to continuously improve. I apologize to those that get frustrated but I think it would be pretty entertaining to watch people try and toss the ball up in the beach wind and try to hit it over the net! We got back to the hotel room to clean up before dinner, I am shocked that there was any sand left on the beach. Our entire shower floor was covered in sand!
We went back to the same Italian place to have some dinner, and that wasn’t the last time that we were there. Next game, Tina and Hailey from USC. The game before ours went long and we ended up standing around watching a 3-set thriller on the men’s side. There were so many people crowded around the stadium court as we were warming up. As we walked out on the court there were people watering it down to cool the sand off, though it did not cool it down at all. It was boiling hot and the game begins! It was again a 3-set match, however, it did not end in our favor. 13-15 in the third set is so frustrating. After the game is over both of us were rerunning the match in our minds trying to think of all of the mistakes that we wanted to take back. But as we all know that’s not the way it works, it stings, it's good to have that sting, it drives you in practice and in the next game!
We ordered dinner and had it delivered to the hotel (thanks delivery woman Audrey and delivery driver Jill) while we did some recovery and regrouped after the loss. We had a lot to chat about and then had to put the game behind us and focus on the next match vs. Urango and Scoles. We again had a 3-set match. We lost and finished 5th in the AVP Fort Lauderdale. We didn’t play the wind well, we didn’t use the conditions to our advantage, and we lost. Both Kristen and I left the court very angry. Of course, we hate to lose and we didn’t talk for a while. We both process the game and the outcome on our own and gather our thoughts, cool down, and then discuss. We both sat with the frustration for a while and then could finally talk about it. The post-loss discussions are horrible in case you were wondering, but necessary for growth!
After our discussion and chatting with the rest of our team, Drew and Mary Hamilton, we checked out and all went our separate ways to spend some time with our friends and family. Kenzie and I wandered down the street and stopped at four different restaurants for food, drinks, and desserts. Kristen and Trey did the same and hit three different places. The time with our favorite people was much needed! However, as soon as we separated and left for the airport the loss came right back and for the rest of the night, we were both just disappointed. Then we had another long chat about what we can do better or change. After about 3 delays we arrived in New Orleans 3 hours late, we went straight to bed! The tournament is over, we learned, and it's time to do laundry and pack everything back up to leave in 3 days for the AVP in Atlanta this weekend. We get a couple of good days of training in to prepare! Thanks for sticking with us – we will be better!
By: Taryn Kloth
