CHICAGO AVP 2022 CHAMPIONS

Wow, it is so much more fun to write a blog about winning the dang tournament.

We had a good feeling going into the Chicago AVP. We had a really solid week and a half of practice and the AVP released that we needed a 1st to clinch a spot in the Phoenix championships. Once Taryn showed me the graphic they released, we both kind of gave each other a nice smirk that said all it needed to without even saying any words – we were going to go win it.

Sometimes as an athlete you just get these weird feelings like you know what is going to happen before it does, and I believe Taryn and I both knew we were going to Chicago to win. On the Tuesday night leading up to the tournament, the AVP released the bracket with our opponent, game time, and court. I relayed that information to a group message with family and friends saying, “First match is at 11:15 ct.1 against Day/Simo. Lets geauxxx. Everyone get ur minds right bc we going to win the damn thing 😤”. Like I said, I had a feeling. I don’t send that text every tournament. (Not that I do not think we are going to win every tournament, just this one felt a little different)

On Thursday morning we flew to Chicago and just when we thought we had a smooth travel day, they come over the intercom to say, “Attention in baggage claim, if you are arriving from New Orleans on flight 1279 your bags are coming but we are struggling to get the cargo door open. We will get them out as soon as possible and we apologize for the inconvenience.” We waited 45 minutes in baggage claim for Taryn’s bag to come out.

With her bag secured we made our way to the Drake hotel to check-in to our room. Thankfully Taryn was the one who went to the front desk to check in because with one look at her height, they upgraded us to a room with two queen beds instead of a room with two double or twin beds like we had last year. Another added bonus to the new room… two bathrooms. No need to decide who gets to shower first, woohoo! Sometimes being tall has its perks.

With our additional 45 min wait in baggage claim, hangry Taryn and Kristen were starting to come out, so once dropping our bags in the room, we quickly made our way to the Goddess and the Baker to grub. Since our stomachs were full, we were back to fully functioning humans, so we decided to knock out some work on the computer in our hotel room for a little bit before heading to dinner at Doc B’s. Again, we grubbed and then made our way back to the hotel to shower, discuss game plan, and get some rest for a busy Friday.

Day/Simo were up first. We knew it was going to be a battle given Day’s experienced and disciplined block and Simo’s athletic and scrappy defense. A battle it was. 21-17 & 28-26. We were into the winner’s bracket round 2 against Brandie & Melissa, two Canadian Olympians and gold and silver world champions respectively. With TKN nation behind us, we were able to pull out another W and move into the quarterfinals. With that win, we earned ourselves a nice relaxing evening since we were not slated to play again until Saturday afternoon.

We were able to spend some time with our family and friends who came and supported us over a nice dinner at Carmine’s. Unfortunately, we all had to sit at separate tables – shocker alter – Taryn and I were apart for more than 2 hours. However, I kept texting her because we normally split two things and I did not have my splitsy person with me, so I had to settle for my mom (she was an okay replacement). It was absolutely delicious. I was extremely hungry, so I did not get to take a picture of the food for my food chronicles, oops. I am still thinking about those meatballs – just delicious.

Relaxing Saturday morning. Sometimes having a game not start until 3 makes it challenging because all you want to do all day is go play, but you just have to spend hours and hours waiting. We woke up and made our way to the athlete tent to eat some breakfast, leisurely walked back to the hotel, and then ran through a little stretching routine. For the other couple of hours, we did some things on the computer, scrolled through social media, visited with family and friends and then finally started to get ready for game time.

Sponcil/Cannon were the opponents and like most of the games between us and them, it was back and forth. We would earn two points and then they would earn two points right back. Unfortunately, we made too many costly errors, and we lost 18-20 in the 3rd set. We were pissed, we were upset, and we were sad. Losing is never fun. Like I said earlier, we went in expecting to win and now we had a long road ahead of us. After about 30 minutes of silence, we ordered some Italian food and, on my walk to pick it up I snapped out of my funk. I had to build my confidence back up and get ready to play again in the morning. I walked back in the room as a much different person from the one that walked out.

Championship Sunday! The 5th place match that we are all too familiar with. 5th place for a 6th time in a row was just not an option; however, I came out looking like I wanted 5th. I was hitting balls into the block and out of the court by like 5 feet. We got crushed. Best thing about volleyball though, there’s another set. A chance to bounce back and that we did. It was a role reversal, and we were headed to a 3rd set. It was back and forth, and we pulled away at the end but then I made some errors and brought them right back into the game and even gave them a match point. Luckily, we were able to fight back and overcome it and the dreaded 5th place was no more – monkey officially off our backs. (Apologies to everyone’s heart and nerves – really wanted to make things interesting in every game on Sunday).

We had a quick turnaround, and not only did we have to play in about an hour, but we also had to check out of our hotel room. (The AVP only provides a hotel room through Saturday night.) So, while grabbing a quick bite from the athlete’s tent, we were on the phone with our moms trying to coordinate getting our room key to them so they could go grab all of our stuff out of the room and move it to Mrs.Tricia’s room (Taryn’s mom). After about an hour (but what felt like 15 minutes) we were back warming up on stadium court about to compete in the semifinals against Cheng/Flint. Like the previous game, I did not start out looking to hot. The legs were definitely feeling the burn. That set turned into I am going to try and conserve as much energy as possible because this match was going to 3. Just like the earlier game, the second set was a completely different story. Shots were falling and blocks and digs were happening, and we were going to another 3rd set. We had the set in hand and I almost tried to give them the game. So many costly errors when closing out games this weekend… I will be better. Fortunately, we made a couple great plays to pull out a 25-23 victory and book our spot in the finals!

They give you about an hour and a half in between the semis and finals… not a lot of time. I was covered in sand, we needed new bathing suits and we needed food. We quickly gathered our stuff and booked it to the hotel. Like I said, we had to check out, so all of our stuff was all over the place in Mrs.Tricia’s room. We walked into her room frazzled. We felt very rushed on time. I was frantically telling my mom on the phone what we wanted from the café in the lobby to which she said, “Kristen, take a breath and slow down.” I slowed down, finished the order, and then hopped in the shower to which I left half the beach. I was clean and felt fresh in our new suits. We were able to get some food in us and then made our way back to the courts. It is so incredibly nice when the venue is a 5-minute walk from the hotel. Big reason why Chicago is at the top of the list for one of our favorite stops.

Just like the previous two games I again did not come out too hot. We found ourselves down 13-8, 15-9 to Brandi/Melissa but this set went different than the one before. We were going to come back and that we did. We fought and crawled for every point and flipped the script to come out on top 21-18. One set away from being champions. The second set was back and forth but too many errors on our side cost us. May sound like a broken record but yet again we found ourselves going to a 3rd set. Winner takes all. We came out hot. We felt like this was our tournament. The crowd had our backs. Someone in the stands asked my friend if Taryn and I were from Chicago. That is how loud the crowd erupted for us. We felt the love and energy and that gave us the extra motivation to keep fighting (and maybe the caffeine in the coke zero helped). We were up 14-10. One point and the title was ours. I got back to serve and said please serve this in the court Kristen. I got it in, and Taryn did the rest. Pure elation. There is nothing quite like the feeling of winning. You feel like you are on cloud 9. We were cheesing so hard in all of the pictures. Finally, what we knew we were capable of happened again… we won an AVP Championship.

After taking tons of pictures and signing autographs, we ran to Lake Michigan and dove into the cold water with most of TKN nation. Sweet sweet victory is way better when you have people to share it with and we are so thankful for all the support we had in Chicago. THANK YOU!

FYI - Big things coming up for TKN in the coming months, so get excited! Keep an eye out for some fun things (I am not talking about more volleyball). Please comment as to what you think I might be talking about!!

Additionally, you all have asked, so we are trying to make it happen… new & updated TKN gear should be going on sale in the coming days.