FRENEMIES??!
NOLA AVP… not exactly how I foresaw it ending. I wanted to be celebrating on the bar, but can’t say I thought we would be throwing napkins in the air with Kelly and Sara after they had just won. If you were not there, I will try and paint the picture for you.
So, we lost our semifinal match against Brandie/Melissa 15-13 in the third. We had a late push in the third set, but it was not enough to get past “the entire country of Canada.” Instead of preparing for the finals match like we hoped we would be doing, we were hanging out by the bar and being handed frozen watermelon lemonade and margarita drinks and getting the most delicious mac & cheese from Moe’s Original BBQ. We were also able to finally talk with all the friends and family members that had come out to support us. With the drinks flowing, the evening naturally became more and more eventful. Our new friends, who had come all the way from New York for the weekend, asked us to sign a Wilson ball they had caught in the crowd. So a blue sharpie got pulled out and that is where the infamous sharpie shenanigans started.
After signing the ball, Taryn was like I am going to sign your arm to which she went ahead and did. Of course, I had to take it to the next level… I signed my name huge on her back and added a little message as well. Obviously, it had to do with her height. *You can see the message to the right* In the midst of all this, the women’s finals match had ended with Hughes/Cheng coming out victorious yet again and like true Louisianans we invited them to come to the bar to have some drinks with us. But first, initiation had to happen… a sharpie note had to be written on their backs. One thing led to another, and after about 30 minutes we were all taking a picture showcasing the hilarious things that were written on our backs. This probably all sounds very crazy, but you really had to be there. Sorry to everyone that left early, you really should have stayed because you really missed out on something that has NEVER happened.
Women’s beach volleyball in the US is so competitive that you rarely see the women laughing together on or off the court but not at NOLA AVP. I think I’ll just let the pictures explain what the rest of the night looked like.
Anyways, let’s go back to the beginning or maybe let’s just go back to Saturday morning. So, it’s Saturday morning around 10am. Taryn and I wake up in good spirits since we won our match against Sponcil/Cannon the night before putting us into the last round of the winner’s bracket slated for Saturday evening. We knew a thunderstorm was supposed to be rolling in, so we kept checking the weather especially since the house was getting darker and darker. It was not looking great. We were watching the first women’s match of the day around noon when about 20 minutes in they called everyone off the court due to lightening in the area. Shortly after, rain started downpouring and thunder was shaking the house. Seemed like a typical Louisiana thunderstorm. About an hour into the storm, we received an email from the AVP stating that competition would not resume until 6pm at the earliest. It was 1:30. We both looked at each other in extreme confusion and agitation saying, “why the heck are we not starting again until 6pm?”. Little did we know, pure chaos and destruction was happening at Coconut Beach because of the extreme wind gusts. We quickly understood why it was going to take that long for play to resume. *If you have not seen the videos, you should go scroll through AVP social media.* The huge Wilson ball was blown away and caught on a tree blocks away, the camera towers had a new resting position on stadium court, the media tents were completely disheveled, and the AVP crew was in disbelief. It was basically a mini hurricane that rolled through for about 2 hours. For non-Louisiana people, we do get frequent thunderstorms but a storm like Saturday DOES NOT happen very regularly, I promise.
*This is where I give a huge credit to the AVP and Coconut Beach crew for being able to piece things back together and make the most of an unideal situation. It was impressive that we were able to get back to playing by 6pm.*
With play resuming on 4 courts, our game was now scheduled for 10pm. Who doesn’t love playing a night game in front of a rowdy hometown crowd?? We came out on fire! 21-10 against a top team in the world does not happen very often. We knew set 2 was going to be a different story and that it was. We found ourselves down by more than a couple points at the technical timeout, however we were able to come back and make it a ballgame. We even had numerous chances to put the game away and just like in the Doha Finals event we did not capitalize on our opportunities. We could not get a point when it mattered the most. We lost the set 31-29 and then went on to drop the third as well putting us into the final loser’s bracket round Sunday morning. The match ended around 11:30pm so getting home and going to sleep was going to be a challenge. We had to put the game behind us and focus on rest and recovery.
We woke up Sunday morning with our bodies feeling the packed sand that we had played on the night before. What does that feel like? Well, your body just aches everywhere. The simplest movements just do not feel good and the thought of having to warm up for another match is less than ideal. I always say warmups are the death of me. I wish I could just skip them and go right into the match.
NOLA AVP would not be fitting if we did not play our fellow LSU teammate Toni Rodriguez so of course, they won their match Sunday morning matching us up with them in the quarterfinals on stadium court in front of a conflicted crowd. The first set went their way. They were embracing the new indoor-like playing surface while we were not. We had to change that. We had to get more aggressive in the second set or we were going to be exiting the tournament early Sunday. Aggressive we got. I was just swinging as hard as I could at just about every ball. I think the crowd was in shock. It is funny hearing the crowd erupt when I actually swing on a ball as opposed to shooting. I think everyone is like woahh what is going on… she can actually hit the ball?? We continued that aggressiveness and found our way into the semifinals which is where the beginning of this story started.
📸: Bryan Malloch
Yet another year of getting to play in front of the home crowd and it most definitely has not gotten old. Taryn and I are so incredibly thankful for everyone that was able to come out and show others what the Louisiana beach volleyball community is like… passionate, rowdy, and very supportive of their own! We hope we gave you performances that you can be proud of, and we hope next year we can be back on top the bar celebrating but with a 1st place next to our names. I’ll end this with the quote that my mom constantly repeated on Sunday evening when talking about the post tournament festivities, “imagine if they [Taryn & I] would have won!”.
By: Kristen Nuss
