STARTING OFF AVP 2022 WITH A BANG

Special thank you to the Ainsworth Family! We greatly appreciate your support!

📸: Mpu

The very first US event for us this year. We thought it would be our first event of the year, however, we all know that luckily changed. The transition from FIVB to AVP and back can be challenging with the travel, ball change, and various playing surfaces. We went from training with the Mikasa ball, to training with the Wilson for the AVP as soon as we came back from Brazil.

There are so many steppingstones when it comes to making this your life with professional beach volleyball, I believe each one has a purpose. Our Austin journey started off rough. We originally booked our nonstop flight from New Orleans to Austin to depart at 1:10 pm. Then it got pushed to 3:45 pm. We thought no big deal we will work our practice schedule around this new schedule. Then right before we were about to board our plane, we get delayed. We weren’t going to land until 8:30 pm in Austin. There was a lot of weather that caused all the issues for us, there was absolutely nothing we could do about it.

I think we were so upset because we had a delicious dinner set up, and my mom flew in early so we could spend the day together considering it was Mother’s Day weekend. I rarely get to see her. Luckily, we got there safely, but then with all the delays we waited on the tarmac for a solid 45 minutes just waiting for a bay to open up. It took every ounce of us to stay sane when we were frustrated, tired, and HANGRY. We have a very specific eating schedule and a 9:15 pm dinner is not on it!

We roll out of the airport and Trey and Mrs. Michelle are there to welcome us to Texas. We rush over to the hotel to enjoy the Terry Black’s BBQ they brought us. We are very lucky to have a great fan base and group of people that are always willing to go the extra mile to help us out all weekend long!

Sadly, not everyone made it in the pic. Sorry to those who missed out!

It truly takes an army. We need food – four people are sprinting to find us a bite to eat. We finish our game, and my mom is running to carry our bags for us to conserve energy. We need someone to stream our match – Ashley and George are on it making up commercials and working on their own sponsorship deals to make it happen. We need hydration and drip drop, our mother Mary is there with everything just waiting for us! We needed a ride to the hotel, and everyone is putting us first – we are so unbelievably lucky to have so many people there to cheer us on, take care of us, and be the greatest support system no matter where we go. I mean my best friend is on her honeymoon and they stopped everything they were doing to cheer us on and stream the game. WOW!

The next morning, we got up and didn’t have a game until 12:15 pm, so we had a great breakfast at Snooze near downtown Austin. We all enjoyed our breakfast and enjoyed each other’s company. We were just excited to be there. We had the best chauffeur in the business that doubled as our commentator when we played on court 2 and we had to stream the match ourselves, Mr. Georgie Nuss. He really was amazing picking us up, dropping us off right at the front and parking in Guam all without a single complaint.

We got to the courts, and it was game time! Waiting around all day for your first match makes a morning seem as though it lasts 2 days. There was so much anticipation, wondering what everyone will look like this year. We hadn’t had an AVP event since September of 2021, that’s a lot of time to improve and change your game. We handled the early jitters and got the W – up next was a match up with Sponcil & Cannon. Our second match of the first day, we sadly dropped the match.

No one wants to lose. No one wants their family and friends to witness them struggle and lose a game. It’s tough to fail in general, then to do it publicly makes it 10x worse. We are obviously very competitive and wanted the game back but that wasn’t an option. We had to push through, figure out the mistakes, and ultimately go back to our game. Playing with joy and fun. Needless to say, we were angry, hot, and frustrated and no one wanted to be by us at that point, well no one wanted to be by me. We had some time to recoup before our third match on Saturday afternoon. We worked through some partner discussions, honest discussions, things that are hard but necessary if we want to achieve our goals and I am very grateful for them.

📸: Matt Greer

We get to Saturday – its win or go home at this point in the double elimination bracket. We were not wanting to go home, and we pulled out the 3-set win. Next up, the Brazilian duo that has tremendous ball control and a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the game. We were given a measly hour to chill, hydrate, and be ready for the match, we actually went to the hotel to cool off and showed up 5 minutes before the match. We cut it very close but luckily, we could get some air conditioning and prepare. Sorry to everyone that was searching for us, we promise we will try not to do that again. We were a little nervous ourselves if it makes you feel better! We were finally getting in a groove and finished the game in 2 sets – we were off to Championship Sunday! We went back to the hotel to rinse off all of the dried mud, rocks, and sweat from our bodies after playing in the 101-heat index. Yes 101. Luckily, we train in the great, yet blisteringly hot, state of Louisiana. We went out to a great dinner with great company. Choosing a dinner spot is always an adventure with us, especially in places such as Austin, TX where there are so many delicious choices! Yelp is our best friend and Kristen is usually scrolling through menu after menu to find the best spots.

Sunday morning! We woke up, and on Mother’s Day my mom woke up early to go on a Starbucks run for our prematch caffeine fix. The venue was a about a 10 minute drive from the hotel, so we had a jam session on the way to the courts. If you really twist our moms’ arms, I’m sure they would show you the video that they had to take of us belting out the song on the way to the courts. First up – Hughes and Kolinske who have accumulated a significant number of points to place them as a top seed internationally. With that being said, we know that they are a great team, we had to focus, play our game, and let the rest fall into place. And that it did, after a back-and-forth battle in the first set of 29-27 we won and moved onto the semis one hour later against Cheng (aka Claes) and Flint. This pair is also atop the international, USAV, and AVP standings. Again, we focused on one point at a time, and we were through to the finals match. This time we were luckily given 1.5 hours break in the 99-degree weather!

📸: Bryan Malloch

Our next opponents were Pavan and Melissa – the reigning world champions & one of the Olympic favorites! We have never matched up against them, but we were fired up and ready for our seventh and final match of the hot weekend. We were finally on center court, my favorite part of center court is Mark Schuermann who is always full of energy, hilarious, and sometimes can’t remember my name – but I will happily be Kristen Nuss for the day! We were ready to head out on the court. We had Drew on the bench, and we just reminded ourselves that we just have to go out there and play like we train to do each and every day. After Nuss accumulated enough dig to transition balls (it was unreal), we were one point from victory. Kristen dug the ball, I gave her a set, and she swung for the fences down the line! Out wide, she was going for an emphatic ending! Next ball, Kristen hits a beautiful cut shot and that was it! 7 matches later and we had won! From that point it was just a blur of hugging our families, celebrating, and flying home to begin training all over again.

Part 293083 of it takes an army – we were flying out that night and had to pack everything up and check out of the hotel room. Our moms came to the rescue to help us pack and move everything while we got off our feet preparing for the finals. Then post game, thinking we would have to fly home nasty and sweaty, Trey comes through with the idea of splitting a hotel room with everyone to shower. GENIUS. We seriously couldn’t do it without our people.

📸: Bryan Malloch

A huge thank you to all the refs and volunteers that spent so much time out on the hot sand. Our TKN crew representing their gear! We felt the love! Thank you all so much. Thank you doesn’t even do it justice. The people that have reached out on social media with kind words and excitement literally brought tears to my eye’s multiple times! I am very, very grateful for the opportunity.

As we were walking through the airport, Kristen looks over (and up) and doesn’t say anything. She is just all smiles, to which I have to smile back and without even a word we can express the “what the heck just happened - that was awesome - I want to do it again - let’s go back out and play volleyball”. Or maybe Kristen just wanted to show off her newly whitened teeth from Elements Dental Spa. Either way, it was exciting, and I was just so blessed to share the court with Kristen.

Honestly, waking up Monday morning, none of it feels real. The only thing I am really feeling is my body and how much I can’t wait for our Trifecta recovery massage!  

By: Taryn Kloth