CHICAGO — In just three pro seasons, Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss have morphed from “that team straight out of college with huge potential” to “one of the best teams in the world.”
Their rise to the top rung of American beach volleyball on the women’s side received additional validation on Sunday afternoon when TKN, as they are known to their legion of vocal supporters, took the long road to back-to-back titles in the AVP Chicago Gold Series Open.
Kloth’s and Nuss’ Windy City resume vividly reflects how far they have come. In 2021, fresh off sensational collegiate careers at LSU, as the new up-and-comers, they advanced to the semifinals before getting the reality check of a lopsided sweep by Olympic gold-medalists April Ross and Alix Klineman. In 2022, they ground out a three-set title-match victory in the rain over Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, who were playing their first tournament together.
This year, with an unseasonable heat wave sweeping Chicago that sent the temperature to 92 degrees at match time, TKN again got the better of third-seeded Melissa and Brandie in three sets 21-14, 15-21, 15-8. Dropping the middle set seemed to light the proverbial fire into the top seeds, who broke open a tight third with five consecutive points that created 13-7 separation.
The “real points” came when Kloth stuffed Wilkerson on a trap set, 5-foot-6 waterbug Nuss feathered her trademark cutty for a winner and followed that with a high roll shot down the line. The barrage was climaxed by the 6-foot-4 Kloth’s taking out the trash on a bumped over-set by Humana-Paredes. To seal the deal, Taryn then rejected Humana-Paredes.
What had been a contentious battle between teams that almost certainly will represent their countries in the 2024 Paris Olympics was over in a flash.
The strategy in the deciding set, according to Kloth, was “to go back to what we were doing in the first set, but honestly, and just locking it in. Focus on one point at a time and not guessing what’s going to happen, just reacting.”
Kloth and Nuss also lost a three-setter to Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson in the knockout round of an FIVB Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite 16 in Montreal in late July, an event won by the Canadians.
“The last time we played Melissa and Brandie, after the match I asked Brandie, ‘Can we just cut to the third…
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