Big win pushes Nuss-Kloth into Beach Pro Tour Finals playoffs
Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth didn’t have calculators on hand during their final match of pool play during the Beach Pro Tour Finals. They weren’t sure if their 21-15, 21-15 victory over Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands was enough to win their tiebreak over the Dutch and, potentially, over Brazil’s Taina Silva and Victoria Lopes, who will finish pool play on Friday morning in Doha.
Both Kloth and Nuss and Stam and Schoon closed pool play with two wins and two losses. While Stam and Schoon had won a set over Australia’s Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho, and Nuss and Kloth were swept earlier in the day (22-20, 21-17) the tiebreak is decided purely on point differential. By the slimmest of margins, then, did Nuss and Kloth squeak out of pool play of the final tournament of the season, edging the Dutch by a differential margin of .04 Whether they advance from pool as the second or third seed will be determined by Friday’s matchup between the Australians and Brazil, though for all intents and purposes it doesn’t matter much; either way, they will begin Friday afternoon’s playoffs in the quarterfinals.
“We really gotta stop doing this to ourselves,” Nuss said afterwards, laughing. “But seriously it was nice to get back to playing the way we know how we can play. To be honest, the first two matches were just bad. And just mentally we were not there but it’s nice to know that still in our young career we can bounce back quickly.”
Kristen Nuss hits a ball at the Beach Pro Tour Finals/Volleyball World photo
It had been a rough start to the tournament, not just for Nuss and Kloth but for the USA as a whole. Coming into their final round of pool, the three American teams in attendance were winless, aside from a forfeit Nuss and Kloth were gifted from a medical withdrawal from Nina Brunner and Tanja Huberli of Switzerland. Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, with a morning loss to Brazilians Ana Patricia and Duda (21-13, 21-19) had dropped to 0-3. Andy Benesh and Miles Partain were 0-2 and, in the match following Nuss and Kloth’s win over the Netherlands, would fall to 0-3 in a three-set belter to Qatar’s Cherif Samba and Ahmed Tijan (16-21, 21-17, 20-18).
It makes Nuss and Kloth’s victory the only legitimate one of the tournament for the USA, whose teams were seeded 2 (Nuss and Kloth), 4 (Cheng and Hughes), and 5 (Benesh and Partain).
“I think going into a match knowing every single point is so crucial really forces you to lock it in,” said Nuss, who is leading the tournaments in digs (53) by 11. “Now we have to figure out how to play with that sense of urgency every single time we step on the court.”
The sense of urgency will no longer have to be created: Every match for the remainder of the event is an elimination match. For the other two American teams, the only matches remaining will be their final matches of the tournament, regardless of result. Cheng and Hughes will play Latvians Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoiloiva at 3 a.m Pacific in what is essentially a consolation match; neither team can break pool, although a win would be a difference in $7,500 of prize money. The losing team will go home with a $7,500 check, the winner with $15,000. That difference is nearly the equivalent of a Challenge silver medal, which is no small thing.
Benesh and Partain are in similar territory: A win over Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Sam Cottafava could help them potentially leap from ninth to seventh and an extra $7,500 in prize money, although a win doesn’t guarantee it. They will have to win a tiebreak based on points.
But only Nuss and Kloth will be moving on, with another shot at a podium, potentially their seventh of the season.
You can find all results and schedule of the Beach Pro Tour Finals at VolleyballWorld.
Andy Benesh blocks Cherif Samba at the Beach Pro Tour Finals/Volleyball World photo
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