TKN Takes 1st in AVPNext Gold New Orleans

6/6/2021

Opponents

• Modified Pool Play

  • Pierce/Sandlin & Creamer/Stasevich

• Single Elim Bracket Play

  • Kliefoth/Kammermeier

  • Lindstrom/Gebhard

  • Quarters: Harward/Scoles

  • Semis: Hildreth/Hogan

  • Finals (won by forfeit): Maestrini/Maestrini

I will first start out by saying this tournament could not have meant more to me. To debut a pro career in my home state and at a complex that I grew up playing at, what more could you ask for? I was surrounded by family, extended family, and numerous friends throughout the weekend. The support was unreal, and I am very thankful!

It was finally time for our pro debut. We were scheduled to begin at 11am but of course the LA weather said otherwise. A 2-hour rain delay later now had our debut set for 1 pm on stadium court. Keep in mind stadium court is usually where the top seed in the tournament gets to play… we were the 11 seed. Thankfully the AVP put us on stadium court because boy did we have a crowd. Parents, siblings, cousins, former high school teammates, friends the list could go on and on. Everyone showed up and again, I could not be more thankful.

The hype building up this game could be compared to what it was like competing for a national championship. We had been waiting 3 weeks post NCAAs for this moment. During our warmup people were coming up asking for pictures and trying to strike up conversations. We had to try and stay focused, but you could tell in our first set that it was very difficult to do that. Also, a lot of credit to Pierce and Sandlin who battled with us in a close 21-19 set one. They are two local junior beach volleyball players who have a bright future ahead. After the first set, Taryn and I settled in and cruised to a 21-9 set 2 victory giving us our first win as a professional beach volleyball pair.

We closed out the modified pool with another straight set victory against Creamer and Stasavich and with this win solidified a first round bye sending into the round of 32 on Sunday morning.

We went home and enjoyed some leftover meat sauce and spaghetti from the night before. I am not sure if it was the lack of food consumed during the day or taryn’s stellar cooking, but that meat sauce REALLY hit the spot. We both could not get it into our mouths fast enough. It was definitely food chronicles worthy, but my phone definitely did not get to eat first.

Sunday morning was a lot earlier for us than the day before. Our first game was at 9am. My family, extend family and friends had to make the long hike to watch us on court 17 (we were not so lucky on court placement day 2). Although we were not on center court, we had the same end result, a straight set victory. Bring on the round of 16.

We were set to play on court 10. We started to warm up, stretch, and do some serve receive. As it got closer and closer to game time, we realized our opponent was nowhere to be found; however, our entire entourage was there. They were setting up their chairs and digging in their umbrellas trying to figure out the best place to watch us. They were not too thrilled when one of the AVP refs told us we were being moved to court 1. A giant herd of people picked up their things and made the track to court 1. It was a pretty cool sight to see.. just a mass of people moving from one court to another. My aunt was talking with us after the game and said, “Y’all should have joked with us and made us move back to court 10.” The way the game started pretty much explained how the game went. It was ugly, it was raining, it was down pouring, and the balls were absolutely soaked. We were able to survive the conditions and again won in straight sets. Bring on the quarterfinals.

Julia Scoles and Hailey Harward (probably the most athletic and freakish pairing in our sport) were our opponents. Shoutout to them for recently winning a national championship. We won the first set and were midway through the second with me going to back to serve at 12-10 when a couple streaks of lightening got a little too close to us… we were in a weather delay. There were a lot of people at this tournament and only a couple places to get out of the rain. With us being the local team and everyone wanting to talk with us, it was a little difficult to stay focused and locked in during the delay. However, after about 30-40 minutes they made an announcement that we were set to resume play in about 10 minutes. Geaux time. It’s always tough to just restart a game in the middle but we were able to overcome that and again come out victorious. Bring on the semifinals.

Photo by: Ed Chan

Match 4 of the day. In college, if coach was like we have 4 matches today we would be like what are you insane but when it comes to big tournaments like this 4 matches is almost a given. Mary Hamilton, our coaches wife and probably the greatest person ever, gave us a little pick me up before this match. We were ready to go and fired up to compete in the semis in front of our home fans. A few questionable calls got the crowd fired up and firing on all cylinders. They even managed to get the wave going which at the technical timeout was very enjoyable to watch. A pretty surreal moment actually. I think this semifinal game was probably Taryn and I’s best match on the weekend. We wanted the win so badly and I think that showed in our play. We did it. We won. Bring on the finals.

The finals did not necessarily go the way we wanted it to. We were about 10 minutes out from starting our warmup and I could tell something was wrong. One of our opponents was frantically running to the VIP area most definitely in search of help. I did not know what was happening, but Taryn and I had to try and stay locked in. I mean we were about to play in the finals, and you need to get your mind right for that. The match before us concluded and it was time to take the court or so we thought. Our opponents coach approached Drew and I as we were standing on the court. Taryn had run to the restroom. He said they were going to have to forfeit because one of them was cramping. As a cramper myself, I felt so bad. I know what’s it like to not be able to finish a tournament because of it. It’s terrible if you were wondering.

Taryn returned from the restroom with a very confused look on her face. I informed her we won due to forfeit. It was a very mix of emotions for the both of us. We were obviously very upset that we could not finish the game but at the end of that we were also very ecstatic that we had just won the tournament. All of hard work had again come to fruition... we were/are the AVPNext Gold New Orleans Champions. We won for the state, for our coach, for our supporters and for ourselves.

We of course ended our night with a celebratory Waffle House and with that put an end to our awesome weekend.

By: Kristen Nuss