TKN GOES BACK-TO-BACK AT WAUPACA BOATRIDE AVPNEXT GOLD

Our first Waupaca Boatride Tournament did not disappoint. This is one of the tournaments that you constantly hear about. You hear about the Bomgren brothers trying to defend their turf and the courts being in the middle of corn fields but wondering if that is actually true… it is. You also hear the questions of will the weather be bad? Or what condition will the courts be in? We were soon to realize why it is called the Waupaca BOATRIDE tournament because you might as well get a boat to float across the courts.

The initial forecast looked great for play on Thursday and Friday; however, we did not look at what the forecast for Wednesday looked like… rain (of course, the LA team brings the rain) [Not to mention that we spent the week prior in Taryn’s hometown of Sioux Falls, SD which was in a drought but not anymore because it rained 2 of the 3 days that we were there] Anyways, those Wednesday showers were not ideal for the already shallow sand. We were receiving word that the courts were in terrible shape, so we luckily found some indoor courts to have a quick practice the night before and loosen up after our drive. After our practice inside, we had to go check out the venue ourselves that evening. Indeed, the sand or shall I say mud was absolutely soaked and there were puddles all over the courts. Let’s just say we were not ecstatic thinking about hitting the ground the next day.

We headed off to dinner to fuel up. Luckily, Yelp found us a great place right across the street from our hotel. We had a nice meal and were able to stay clear of the cheese curds (for now) which was very difficult because I am pretty sure just about every table around us ordered them. We were full and we were ready to compete the next day.

The next day started off chilly and cool but morale was high. Probably due to the abundance of wonderful people within the beach community. It’s like a family at the tournaments, you forget a ball pump, chair, or blanket no worries someone brought extra to share. We had our first match of mud volleyball and came out victorious with just some refinance of mud on our clothes. The next game, we played Julia Scoles and Hailey Harward of USC. The game did not go in our favor, and we had some regrouping to do. We understand losses will happen and things will fall through. The best part of this is working through it and learning from those losses. No one wants to lose but we took the time to talk about the match and what could have been different to learn from it. We had some time to find some food with our helpful friend, Yelp. We ended up at a restaurant right on Lake Winnebago. We refueled, regrouped, and we were ready to rumble.

Our third and final match of the day was played in almost darkness. They had a couple portable lights, but finding a little yellow ball flying your way in the darkness was challenging. We did make it through our playoff match with a W and we were off to bed to recover before the next day of competition.

The sun surely came out the next day and we were off on our goal to win the tournament. This tournament was chock full of amazing athletes, and we ran into our second USC team to compete against first thing in the morning. This one did go our way, luckily, we were moved up to the courts that had significantly less water in the craters of the sand. We were onto the quarterfinals, where we met up with Katie Horton from Tulane Beach Volleyball and Carly Kan. We always know it’s going to be a battle and we appreciate all of our Louisiana family and friends cheering for great volleyball. We had won the first set and we went down 14-7 in the second set; however, we hit a switch and came back to win 21-18. It was a battle and so much fun!

The semis were next, we matched up with the Brazilian team that we were matched up with in New Orleans and unfortunately couldn’t finish the match. The sun was starting to go down and we had another 3 set thriller with them, almost identical to the 3 setter we had with them at the finals in the New Year’s tournament. We lost the first game, won the second, and won the deciding third set with a final score of 16-14. They are so much fun to play, it’s always going to be a challenge with their skill set and experience. Truly some incredible beach volleyball and I was happy to be there, along with the crowd that has moved in to watch.

As soon as the court next to center court opened from the men’s semi, there was mad rush to be seated as close as possible to the match. The support and love for beach volleyball and volleyball in general at this tournament is unbelievable until you experience it for yourself. We were up against Kim Hildreth and Katie Hogan in one of the darkest nights without much lighting to play in. There were definitely points that I couldn’t see the ball and lost it in the darkness and the shadow of people. Center court was FILLED with so many people. People standing on a golf cart to see, people were sitting on the muddy ground, and the announcer was non-stop talking to the crowd. There was so much excitement surrounding this game, the environment was unreal. We were just so happy to be there and be in that moment at our first Waupaca Boatride. It was our last game playing on the concrete-mud-beach volleyball courts. We were ready for battle. It was a two-set match that ended with a huge kill from Kristen to win 22-20. We had just won, thanked the refs and our opponents for a great match, the fireworks went off, and we were both handed a bottle of champagne. To say neither of us are experienced in popping a bottle of champagne would be an understatement. We looked at each other with a deer in headlights look and just enjoyed the moment. The cork went flying into the crowd, we embraced our family who had been so supportive through the cold, warm, early, and late games. A look of gratitude and excitement was passed on from Kristen and I to everyone that was there. Our first Waupaca Boatride and it did not disappoint. The next day we went out to brunch to refuel at Polina’s Cafe, which was absolutely wonderful. Then we packed up and went back out to the venue at Brighton Acres to watch the unbelievable athleticism at the grass triples. We said goodbye to our volleyball family, and we were off to New Orleans!

By: Kristen Nuss & Taryn Kloth