- California serves as beach volleyball’s hotbed, but the hottest Olympic pair going are two LSU alumni who remain based out of Baton Rouge.
- At 5-foot-6, Kristen Nuss lacks the height of a typical beach volleyball Olympian. Taryn Kloth, from South Dakota, grew up miles away from beach volleyball.
- Kristen Nuss aims to 'rewrite the script' as she and Taryn Kloth chase gold at Paris Olympics.
California isn’t the only state that knows how to party.
So does Louisiana.
That’s certainly the case when Team USA’s Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth play their Olympic beach volleyball matches.
While Nuss and Kloth hit the sand a continent away, hundreds gather at watch parties at Louisiana’s beach volleyball hubs like Mango’s Beach Volleyball in Baton Rouge and Coconut Beach Volleyball just outside New Orleans.
California still serves as beach volleyball’s hotbed, but the hottest Olympic pair going are two LSU alumni who remain based out of Baton Rouge.
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“While it’s not California and we’re not playing on beaches, (beach volleyball has become) really popular in this little area of southeast Louisiana,” said Russell Brock, who coached Nuss and Kloth at LSU.
“The support that they get within our community has been there from the beginning, and . . . they’ve just kind of ramped it up a little bit (for the Olympics).”
And, why not? This fast-paced sport is easy on the eyes.
Nuss and Kloth are a fun duo to watch, whether you’re a diehard beach volleyball fan or a casual one who tunes in every four years during the Olympics.
This time, matches unfold under the Paris night sky as the Eiffel Tower stands in the background. It’s a most picturesque setting for TV viewers.
Plus, who doesn’t appreciate a winner?
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Nuss and Kloth are the No. 2 seed in an event featuring 24 pairings. They are 2-0 entering their final match of pool play against China (4 p.m. ET, Thursday).
Team USA's Kristen Nuss, Taryn Kloth are 'going for gold'
Nuss and Kloth beat Australia’s reigning Olympic silver medalists, Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy, in straight sets on Monday.
“They’re going for gold,” Brock said, “and I think they’ve proven that there’s not anybody there who they can’t beat.”
Since beach volleyball became an official Olympic sport in 1996, American women have teamed up to supply seven medals. Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings galvanized the sport. That iconic American duo won three consecutive gold medals.
May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings embody a typical beach volleyball lineage. They’re California natives who went to California universities. That’s also true of April Ross and Alix Klineman, the American pair who won gold in 2020.
At its core, beach volleyball remains a Left Coast sport.
Nuss and Kloth break norms.
How Kristen Nuss, Taryn Kloth united at LSU beach volleyball
Nuss, a New Orleans native, lived her dream by playing for LSU.
Kloth, from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, starred on Creighton’s indoor team before transferring for three seasons of beach volleyball at LSU, where she formed her partnership with Nuss.
Mango’s remains home base for this duo known as TKN (Taryn Kloth + Kristen Nuss = TKN). Drew Hamilton, a former LSU assistant, coaches TKN on the beach circuit.
Nuss, 26, and Kloth, 27, finished their LSU careers in 2021. They resisted California's magnetic pull and launched pro careers from Baton Rouge.
Nuss, in a 2021 blog post, considered it a badge of honor.
“We don’t need to live in California to be successful in this sport,” she wrote then. “I want to rewrite the script.”
She’s doing exactly that.
At 5-foot-6, Nuss is shorter than her contemporaries. If you saw her on a street in Paris, you wouldn’t immediately think you’d spotted an Olympic beach volleyball player. You might think that of the 6-4 Kloth — until you learn she’s from South Dakota. You don’t find beaches up that way.
Nuss played basketball and soccer and starred in indoor volleyball in high school. Her athleticism translates across sports, but she didn’t begin dabbling in beach volleyball until high school.
She covers shocking amounts of terrain and dives to keep balls off the sand. She’s an offensive weapon, too, a tactician with excellent vision and a stealthy cut shot. She sleuths out soft spots in the defense.
“Even when she played indoor, she played a different kind of game that really translated well,” said Brock, who coached Nuss throughout her five seasons at LSU. “Her skill set was more ball control, quickness and athleticism.”
Kloth’s journey is no less remarkable. The nearest beach to Sioux Falls is — well, a plane ride away. She made her name indoors.
At Creighton, Kloth became a powerful force hammering away at the net. She was such a talent that Brock believes she might’ve had a path to the Olympic indoor roster if she had not transferred to LSU and converted to beach.
Playing on an unforgiving sand surface outdoors can be a difficult transition for even skilled indoor players not accustomed to the beach game. The two-player nature of beach volleyball requires peak conditioning, too.
“It takes time to make that transition,” Brock said. “She embraced that mental side of it.”
Kloth embraced Louisiana, too, while Nuss never wanted to leave a state that can’t seem to get enough of TKN. As long as this duo is on the sand in Paris, they’ll be partying at the beach volleyball clubs in Louisiana.
Blake Toppmeyeris the USA TODAY Network's SEC Columnist. Email him atBToppmeyer@gannett.comand follow him on Twitter@btoppmeyer.
Also, check out his podcast,SEC Football Unfiltered,and newsletter,SEC Football Unfiltered.Subscribe to read all of his columns.
