WORLD TOUR FINALS CHAMPS
If you would have asked anyone on Thursday, December 7 (the second day of the tournament) who had been watching us compete in the tournament, I doubt anyone who have said I think they are going to win the whole thing. Or if you did, you definitely had doubts. While that might have been concerning for all our family members, friends and supporters ~7,900 miles away, I on the other hand had another thought…
Between the Australia and Netherlands match Taryn and I probably had one of the hardest and most vulnerable discussions of our careers. I’m not going to give details but at the end of said discussion I wrote this on my iPad (see pic). We were beating ourselves and in my opinion we are the only ones who can ever beat us. So after talking, I think we figured out how to stop doing that for the time being and it certainly showed if you were watching.
So now let’s bring it back to the beginning… we arrived in Doha on Saturday, December 2 around 5pm with Taryn being slightly (this is an exaggeration, she was beyond elated) more excited to have landed in Doha, Qatar. Why? Well everyone let’s give a warm welcome to Eric Brasher Taryn’s boyfriend! Eric was waiting patiently for us at customs and it was at this point that we took a big step… the two of us turned into three.
From customs to the hotel Eric was giving us some solid Doha facts since he had done some research in anticipation for his first trip… think he was trying to win some brownie points. We unloaded bags in rooms and then headed to our favorite restaurant, Grams. During dinner the excitement of being back was wearing off and the tiredness was setting in.
The Corniche
Sunday and Monday were our exploration days and also time for us to show Eric our favorite things from last time. Traveling internationally and exploring is something we have grown accustomed to so when we had Eric just absolutely amazed by everything it really put it back into perspective for us… WHAT WE DO IS WILD.
We walked around the Corniche stopping to take pictures every 10 minutes, we hit the calm, clean and quiet downtown area, and we absolutely had to go back to Rusk Artisanal Bakery to get my favorite desserts before we headed back to the hotel for the night. Monday night I also got treated to a nice sore throat… I thought solid timing with play starting Wednesday.
Tuesday was our last prep day which is typically our chill day. We did a very light practice with Eric constantly acing us, us getting annoyed and him pumping his fist in excitement. The USA provider Beth arrived late Monday night so Tuesday we were able to get some solid treatment in with her before hitting the dinner provided. That night we sat with Andy and Miles in which we chatted about volleyball, the new AVP setup and also trying to set up Miles. After dinner, I saw a video on Instagram of a friend pose so I was like “hey, T we should try this” and we did. If you saw the video on our instagrams it was pretty funny if I must say.
Wednesday - when we rolled up to the courts to start warmups for our first game against Brazil, the Swiss team approached us informing us they were going to have to forfeit due to injury. You never wish that upon an opponent. We felt so bad that they could not compete but we had to put focus back on warming up for Brazil. The Brazil game was ROUGH. No fun was had on the court, it most certainly looked like it was the last tournament of the season and also that we took a vacation before it. We got slapped in the face and that evening was not fun to just sit and deal with that loss.
To get our minds off volleyball for a little bit we tried to have some fun in the room. I saw another video on instagram of 2 blockers and a libero doing a macarena video so my immediate thought was me, Taryn and Eric. You really have to entertain yourself sometimes in these hotel rooms.
Thursday - chance to redeem ourselves. At this point, my previously mentioned sore throat had turned into congestion and the mornings involved me coughing up some grossness (I’ll spare the details). The grossness that I was experiencing also carried over to the court. We again lost in two with the second set not being pretty at all. Our chances of moving on were slim. I also lost my jersey (you only get 1 per day) on the golf cart ride back to the hotel so after getting back I had to go retrace my steps. Luckily she was found chilling on the street. Was a fun cherry on top of just not good things.
Insert convo and story from the beginning. The Netherlands game that night was different. We were different and the results were different. I hugged Taryn after the match saying “well, I hope that was enough.” We knew every single point in that game was critical. Taryn got hit with a drug test after the game so I headed back to the hotel by myself. When I was walking into the elevator I had my phone in hand and went to grab the hotel key out of my bag when my phone went flying. It hit the ground and slid across the floor straight down the elevator shaft. Everyone in the lobby heard the loud noise and saw me just standing there in complete disbelief. I heard it fall for a little bit and then boom. It hit ground somewhere down there. I expressed to the worker that it was my phone that fell not the key card. There were many people with flashlights looking down the shaft and finally they got engineering to go down to the basement. After about 15-20 minutes they came up with my phone in hand. The back of my phone was already shattered but it now was missing parts. You could see the insides of my phone but it was still working and the front wasn’t cracked. Honestly a miracle and funny story I got to tell Taryn after she completed her drug test.
The reason I had my phone in hand anyway was to text Travis Mewhirter. I knew he would know if we made it out of pool or not so immediately after getting my phone back I texted him and waited anxiously for his reply. After about 5 minutes he said, ”good to go you sneaky little ladies”. My thoughts: Wow, we are winning. Drew texted us saying, “they done messed up letting y’all break pool… last competition. go freakin do something special”.
Rest is history: made many many errors but beat Canada in 2; got redemption on the Australians in dominate fashion; and saved our best for last against the Germans to take home the crown of Beach Pro Tour Finals Champions and $150k.
There is not a whole lot you can do in Doha to celebrate so the first place we hit after the podium was the grocery store Carrefour. They had some delicious protein bars we saw earlier in the week so wanted to get some for travel home. Going to the grocery store also allowed everyone to get what they wanted: Beth hit the large dates assortment, I headed straight to the drinks for a Sprite Zero, and Taryn and Eric secured the protein bars. The grocery store is located in the Villaggio Mall and this is not an ordinary mall… there is a stream that runs through it and you can hop on a gondola. Beth, who is amazing and super glad she was with us on this trip, was like what if we went and rode the gondola. Genius idea - we had a blast and it also made for some fun pictures and videos. After stepping off the gondola I felt like I hit a brick wall. A shower and bed were calling my name. At about 1:15am a 4:35am alarm was set and the brain and body said night night.
What an absolute wild way to end our 2023 season. It was one of the most successful seasons for a USA women’s team since 2016 (April Ross & Kerri Walsh) but if you ask Taryn or I we’ll tell you we should have done better. We are never content with where we are at but there is a lot to celebrate. 92 matches later… it’s time for a break!
2023 by the numbers coming soon!
Happy Holidays :)
By: Kristen Nuss
