Hyden Beach AVP Next - Spring Hill, TN
October 10-11, 2020: Spring Hill, TN
“This tournament was a very surreal moment for me and my beach volleyball career. We were able to play the seventh ranked team in the world and come out victorious. It was awesome and we were very much the underdogs in that finals match.”
-Kristen Nuss
“Due to my lack of experience once again, I had no idea who we were playing. I was just very excited to be there and competing against great athletes.”
-Taryn Kloth
We played 5 games over the course of 2 days in Tennessee. We won in straight sets for all matches with the exception of our quarterfinal match against Spieler and Knudson. Our competition included (in order): Marlayna Bullington and Rachel Tam, Annika Rowland and Teegan Van Gunst, Delaney Knudson Mewhirter and Katie Spieler, Van Gunst twins again, and finally Kelley Larsen Kolinski and Emily Stockman.
Once again we were blessed with pouring rain during our tournament. So much rain that we could only play two matches before being sent back to our hotel. That night we went to find some dinner in Franklin, TN, one of the nicest little areas we had traveled to. I was accompanied by Kristen and her father, so when it was time to get under the umbrella either I had to duck and walk for blocks or Georgie (aka George), Kristen’s dad with a staggering 5’7 frame (I wonder where Kristen got her height?), had to have his arm fully extended to keep us all dry. The latter of the two was the easy choice for the southern gentleman. We were able to go explore, finish up some homework, not to forget we were still student-athletes, and get some sleep before another long day.
I remember rolling up to the facility scared to play our first round. I was looking around and Kristen just looks at home when she steps on the sand and I am still shaking when I warmup. Yet again, Kristen is the cool, calm, collected rock that holds this partnership steady.
As we make our way into the games I was feeling more and more comfortable, this would have changed if Kristen would have told me who we were playing. She knew we were playing some of the top teams in the country, yet she was so confident. Spieler and Knudson are a top level AVP pair and Kelley Kolinski and Emily Stockman were ranked number 15 in the world. During our eight hour car ride, Kristen, the food connoisseur, was shockingly looking for food places along the way and stumbled upon Cinnaholic (if you haven’t heard of this look it up). We decided that we would get to stop at Cinnaholic if we were to come out victorious on the weekend. On the last point of the game I went back to serve and said “one more point till Cinnaholic”. It gave us an escape from the stress of each point. We were able to relax and play the game we have been training all summer to do. We did end up victorious, we were ecstatic, chatted with John Hyden after and he was very insightful. While all of this was happening I was so naive to know who everyone was. Kristen did inform me once we got in the car who everyone was! I then spent the rest of the 8 hour car ride googling beach volleyball athletes, watching videos, and crying with excitement. It was at this point that I finally realized this is what I want. Later I found out this was also Kristen’s turning point, she was always confident but now she knew, her 5’6 frame could compete with these people.
By: Taryn Kloth
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