TORQUAY + ‘22 SEASON RECAP (READ OR SKIP TO THE END)
Australia, where the crazy adventure of 2022 started and where we ended our rookie international season. We were dropped off at the New Orleans airport for the last time of the season and the TSA security staff, once again, asked if Kristen was my minor. She was not thrilled to be asked that question again. We flew to LA and had an extended layover, so instead of twiddling our thumbs in the airport we left. We trekked through the streets of Manhattan and Hermosa beach. Along the way, we stopped at a couple of the coffee shops and restaurants to work on Santa in the Sand stuff. After 10 hours of wandering around, we went to our favorite Manhattan Beach family’s house for a quick shower before the 15-hour flight to Australia.
We flew through security at the LAX airport, yeah we were shocked too. We immediately went to watch our teams - Creighton volleyball won the Big East Championship while the LSU football team fell to Texas A&M.
We were delayed leaving LA and landed in Sydney late. The Sydney airport was wild, especially baggage claim where each passenger was required to collect and recheck their luggage before their connecting flight. Our luggage was stuck on the luggage belt as the man in front of us had a suitcase strap that jammed the entire belt. We were scheduled to have a 2.5-hour layover, which turned into a 30-minute sprint to a bus to transfer to another airport for domestic Australian travel, we cut the line to check our bags, half sprinted/half walked to our gate, and arrived right on time for boarding. Then we found out that the flight was delayed. So, all of that stress and sprinting for nothing. We jumped on a quick flight to Melbourne, took another bus, and then a shuttle to finally arrive in Torquay. Which is pronounced Tor”key”. Yet again, we were pronouncing the location of the tournament incorrectly until we arrived. The 23-hour travel day was exhausting! I hopped in the shower and started washing my face with my shampoo I was so delirious.
Torquay was a beautiful beach town with around 20,000 people. However, we learned that nearly 120,000 people populate the small city on holidays and throughout the summer. Fun side note: 2 weeks prior to this trip when we were in Cape Town, I met a set of sisters at the food market. As I was standing in line to order my dairy free yogurt, one of them commented on my height. Her accent gave it away, so I asked where she was from in Australia, to which she answered Torquay. What are the chances? Blown away by the coincidence, we exchanged phone numbers and we went to dinner with her on the first night we were in town. We asked all about Torquay, Australia, and enjoyed their local knowledge. After dinner, we were off to sleep with the bedtime goal of 9:00 pm but Kristen failed and passed out at 8:45.
We both woke up at the crack of dawn with a 17-hour time change. I was thrilled about breakfast! Australian breakfast or their brekkie has been my favorite all year and the hotel did not disappoint. They always had so many dairy free options with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables to choose from. We went for a morning walk to get moving and we were in search of a coffee shop we found on google maps. The “coffee shop” was a house, and the next “coffee shop” that was near the resort also ended up being a house. It was very strange but we were able to stretch out, move around, and enjoy the beautiful Australian weather so it all worked out. As we passed by the beautiful homes, we were greeted with a “g’day” to which we responded with the very American “hello”. G’day just sounds way cooler especially with their amazing Australian accents.
📸: Volleyball World
We scheduled a practice slot in Geelong, which was a 30-minute drive inland at an indoor beach facility. We then walked to a local lunch spot that Kristen found and had brekkie round two before checking into the tournament and getting credentials. Of course, we had to hit a snag, they didn’t have our credentials, we were the only American team without ours printed and we had to come back the next day to pick them up. On the bright side, we finally were no longer shadow people on the VBTV app! It’s all about the baby steps!
Many of the Australians that were working this Torquay event were also at the Coolangatta tournament at the beginning of the year and remembered us! It was a full-circle moment for us. When we checked in, we received a goodie bag, including a can of Tonic & Gin, bug spray, sunscreen, and a hat that says “Better Beer”. Each day we would hear a knock on our door and they would bring us a traditional Australian snack to try. We loved the Vegemite crackers and the Violet Crumble candy bar! They were great hosts and shared so much of their unique touch with us while we were there.
Torquay was full of mosquitos and bugs everywhere because of El Nino and people warned us about the spiders and snakes in Australia. After dinner, we made the brilliant choice to go walk around by the trees and in the grass, Nuss almost ran directly into a spider dangling from the tree so we quickly made our way back to the hotel room at light speed. Game Day #1: we were up and ready, a little groggy. After we had brekkie, we stayed in the athlete’s breakfast room at the hotel to do our crossword puzzles and have some coffee. Then a French team walked in, they noticed our crosswords and they came to help. Those two men knew more in their second language than we did in our first language. It was embarrassing so we are going to be doing them frequently to practice. We lost our first game to the New Zealand pair in three sets. After losing we dropped our plan to go drive the Great Ocean Road. To be completely honest we were in the hotel room a lot this week with our feet up, stretching, laying down, chatting, and playing Sudoku so we weren’t much fun.
Brekkie and Game Day #2! If you were unaware, I hate spiders and one crawled out of my bowl of fruit as I was cutting the giant, juicy strawberry. It was a rough start but we won the game against Thailand right after so I forgot all about it. However, on our way to the game, we arrived at the venue and we were immediately stopped by a fellow American FIVB ref and she asked to talk in a more serious manner. I hate the feeling of being in trouble, and I had no idea what we did but I 100% thought we were in trouble and would be kicked out. She explained to us that all of the FIVB refs just watched a clip, a clip of us playing, and how we would be called if we didn’t change our release time when setting. Then we made it to the court and had another conversation with the Olympic Gold Medal ref who explained to us that they are letting the doubles go more and the length of time the ball is in your hands is what matters now. Once again, we learned of another rule and had to change on the fly, but that’s beach volleyball for you!
📸: Volleyball World
For our last pool play game of the tournament we were set to play China at 9 pm Australian time, we were mid warmup when our USA trainer came to us in a panic that we had to go to the FIVB office. Kristen sprinted off and I stood there in shock, while our trainer asked what we did wrong and if we were getting kicked out. Again, I was so scared that we were in trouble, then I sprinted to the office to find out the China team had to medically forfeit. After the forfeit, we just had to sit and watch the other two teams battle it out and wait in worry if we would make it to the quarterfinals. We had multiple family and friends trying to figure out the point and game ratio to calculate if we broke pool. The waiting game was so much more stressful than playing in a game because we had zero control over the outcome. There was a 3-way tie with a record of 2-1 for all three teams so it then went off of a points ratio. Surprise!! We broke pool as the #1 seed and on to the quarterfinals!
We won in two sets against another China team for our quarterfinal match and we were finally passed the fifth-place finish! We did a couple of interviews about Australian words and sayings, our favorites are buggas and G’day. Up next, the fellow American pair of Hughes and Cheng… they beat us in two sets and we were dropped in the bronze medal match slated for Saturday against the Tokyo Silver medalists from Australia.
Bronze medal match time came around and we ran out onto the center court when they announced our names, and the bursts of flames they shot out scared us half to death. We lost a close 3 set battle and we walked off the court passing by the three medals set on the table. We ended the year on a loss, it hurt. Words can’t explain how much we have learned this year about ourselves, each other, the competition systems, the tournaments, and the other players.
We left the tournament saying “I’m proud of you” and “I’ll keep getting better for you” to each other. No one else I would rather go out there and battle with!
That night we went down to dinner at the hotel and Kristen bought us a bottle of wine to celebrate the good that came from the year and we celebrated with some of the others men’s teams at the local Torquay bar that shuts down at midnight. The next day we explored the foodie city of Melbourne. There was a different restaurant, shop, store in every alley that we walked by. After 10 miles of walking around the city, we were in bed at 4 pm and slept for 15 hours. Needless to say, we were exhausted and left it all out there!
For all my fellow visual learners here is a full recap of what we have done this year, this is for you! All my numbers people (Tina and Bob) keep reading!
TKN 2022 season
14 Tournaments
Coolangatta, Australia
Itapema, Brazil
AVP Austin Texas
Kusadasi, Turkey
AVP New Orleans
Jurmala Latvia
Gstaad,, Switzerland
AVP Fort Lauderdale
AVP Atlanta
AVP Manhattan Beach
AVP Chicago
AVP Phoenix Championships
Paris, France
Cape Town, South Africa
Torquay, Australia
6 different countries
5 different Continents
Finishes
Coolangatta Australia – 1st Place
Itapema Brazil – 9th Place
AVP Austin Texas – 1st Place
Kusadasi Turkey – 1st Place
AVP New Orleans – 2nd Place
Jurmala Latvia – 5th Place
Gstaad Switzerland – 5th Place
AVP Fort Lauderdale – 5th Place
AVP Atlanta – 5th Place
AVP Manhattan Beach – 5th Place
AVP Chicago – 1st Place
AVP Phoenix Championships – 1st Place
Cape Town South Africa – 5th Place
Torquay, Australia - 4th place
Entry Points (Only counts best 3 of last 4 finishes)
March 25, 2022 – 0 FIVB Points
April 4th, 2022 – 400 FIVB Points
April 17th, 2022 – 860 FIVB Points
May 23rd, 2022 – 1660 FIVB Points
June 6th, 2022 – 2020 FIVB Points
July 12th, 2022 – 2320 FIVB Points
October 5th, 2022 – 2320 FIVB Points
November 8th, 2022 – 2280 FIVB Points
December 5th, 2022 – 2,420 FIVB Points
*Points are calculated as a whole because we are a TEAM!
Days Away
33 days in CA training – Jan 11-Feb 12
4 days in Chicago – Feb 17-20
11 days in Australia Coolangatta Futures – March 25-April 4th
7 days in Itapema Brazil – April 11-17
4 days in Austin Texas – May 5-8
2 days in Louisville Kentucky – May 13-14
9 days in Kusadasi Tukey – May 15-23
8 days in Jurmala Latvia – May 30-June 6
Taryn Home – 6 days – June 7-12
11 days in Gstaad Switzerland – July 2-12
Taryn Home – 6 days – July 15-20
4 days in Fort Lauderdale FL – July 28-31
4 days in Atlanta GA – August 4-7
7 days in Manhattan Beach, CA – August 15-22
3 days in Omaha, NE – August 26-28
5 days in Chicago, IL – September 1-5
4 days in Phoenix, AZ – September 22-25
10 days in Paris, France – September 25-October 5
1 day in Charleston, SC – Luke Combs Concert – October 14
12 days in Cape Town, South Africa – October 28-November 8
10 days in Torquay, Australia – November 26-December 5
Taryn Home – 13 days – December 16-28
Days away
Kristen: 146 days
Taryn: 161 days
That’s about 44% of the year we are away
Flight lengths
Coolangatta Australia – 41 hours
Itapema Brazil – 24 hours
AVP Austin Texas - 1.5 hours
Kusadasi Turkey – 19 hours
AVP New Orleans - 10 minute drive!
Jurmala Latvia – 28 hours
Gstaad Switzerland – 23 hours
AVP Fort Lauderdale – 2 hours
AVP Atlanta – 1 hour
AVP Manhattan Beach – 3.5 hours
AVP Chicago – 2.5 hours
AVP Phoenix Championships – 3 hours
Cape Town South Africa – 62.5 hours
Torquay, Australia – 37.5 hours
8th in the FIVB World Ranking (top 8 FIVB finishes in 365 days)
Needless to say, we are priority members on two different airlines, and we know all of the movies that are going to be offered on the flights. We have tried all the travel pillows; we always pack a Waiakea water in our checked bags for when we arrive at the destination late and are very parched. Always say yes to the extra water cups on the flights and our compression socks are not trendy, but needed. TKN tour of 2022 has ended, we learned a lot, we are taking a break, and we will be back for more in 2023.
By: Taryn Kloth
