Phoenix Champions
Insane venue! 📸: Mpu
Woke up at the dark and early hour of 4am to make our travel snacks and head to the airport. Early flights are great in that they rarely get delayed; however, waking up at 4am is just terrible. We both took melatonin at around 8pm Wednesday night to try and make us tired so we could get some sleep… it sort of worked.
We arrived at the fairly busy airport around 4:45am, however, as we have mentioned, we are able to skip all the lines because of our priority status and CLEAR membership. We (mainly me) were kind of excited when the Pre-Check line had a nice line formed because we were able to skip them all! The only problem we ran into was Taryn’s bag getting checked because of the protein powder and pb2. Those things always get checked… never fails.
We recently gained access to pretty much all lounges (about time). So, we took full advantage of that and with the 15 minutes we had before boarding we checked out Club MSY. No more paying for airport food – woohoo! We wanted to take advantage of the lounge access so much so that when we landed at DFW for our 45 min layover, we ventured all the way from terminal A to terminal D to check out the Centurion Lounge. Boy, I am glad we did. We only spent about max 15 minutes in the lounge but in that span, we had by far the best food we have ever had in an airport. May start trying to stop at DFW for layovers more often. We trekked back to terminal A with a quick pit stop at Starbucks of course… we had been up for 4.5 hours and it was only 8:30am.
After landing and experiencing the most interesting 30 min Uber ride (was supposed to only be about 15min) of our lives, we made it to Snooze to have breakfast/lunch/brunch (time travel is weird) with Taryn’s Aunt Cynthia and cousins Haley & Tres. Everyone shared some rather interesting stories which will remain at the Snooze table and the Snooze table only (sorry everyone… should have been there). After, we made the short walk back to our hotel to do some work on the computer and just chill before our 5pm dinner with Taryn’s good friend Kate, her boyfriend Braxton, her mom Jen and good friend Barb. We went to an amazing Italian restaurant, and I learned a lot about high school in Sioux Falls.
Ogio set up a wonderful clinic at a nearby beach facility, Mesquite Beach. It was a rather last minute thing; however, it far exceeded my expectations… there were over 60 people who wanted to participate in the 1.5 hour clinic. There were around 20 people on 4 courts (picture that), it was wild but amazing! We made it back to our hotel room around 10pm which was 12AM our time. By the time we showered and got in bed it was probably closer to 11 which again is 1AM our time, so we were 3 hours short of staying up for a full 24 hours – what a day.
Gameday! However, with the game being at 6pm we had a lot of time. We wondered down to the lobby for some lovely hotel breakfast and then made our way to the Footprint Center to check it out. When we walked in, everyone’s eyes got massive. Seeing the court where an NBA basketball court should be is pretty awesome to see. The Footprint Center is going on the list of coolest places I have played. We checked out the locker room and sat in the stands to soak it all up for a little bit then made our way to BadAss coffee to do some reading and work on the computer.
After getting some early lunch we went back and chilled in the hotel room to play some cards, watch TV, and visit with Taryn’s dad Mike and stepmom Janna. We got game ready and made our way to Potbelly for a little pregame dinner sandwich which absolutely hit the spot, I think a warm sandwich is my fav pregame meal.
The stadium was pretty packed for a 6pm Friday start and we were pumped! The first set against Scoles/Urango was back and forth to begin with. We knew that’s how it was going to be. We needed to just hang with them at the beginning because we knew points would eventually start falling our way. We did not expect a 9-0 run to go in our favor, but we were rolling. Taryn was doing her thing at the net, and I just kept throwing in some short serves to try and take their approaches away. We were able to close out the match in 2 and advance to the semifinals.
After taking pictures and signing autographs, we embraced our pretty tipsy family and friends which is always fun and entertaining! After chatting with everyone for a little bit we headed back to the hotel to shower and watch the men’s games while lying in bed. We were able to get to bed around 10:30pm and get some rest for our 10am match the next morning.
The 1 seed Hughes/Kolinski. Being the underdog is so fun. A lot of the pressure goes on the top seed, so we were able to come out playing free. It was so weird walking in the stadium that early. I kept telling Taryn and Drew that it felt like it was nighttime to which they both responded, “great”. (I love playing at night – I’m not so much a morning person). We carried over our momentum from the night before and picked up right where we had left off. We were clicking, we were in rhythm and it felt real nice. 21-12. 21-17. Ticket punched to the championship.
While watching the other women’s semi at the stadium, we ate some breakfast and lunch, and then we made our way back to the hotel to rinse off and catch the men’s semis on YouTube. We had 8 hours in between the end of the match to the start of the championship. We watched TV, visited with friends and family, and played cards… pretty much all our normal things. 2 hours before our match we again hit Potbelly and ordered the same exact thing. Think we need to start eating sandwiches pregame all the time.
The crowd was rocking, and the stage was set – us vs Cheng/Flint for the title of AVP 2022 Best Team. Right before player intros, Jeff Conover came over to us and informed us that they were going to cut the lights and shine a nice spotlight on whoever was being introduced… not something I ever thought would happen when I decided to play beach volleyball. The crowd was hyped and ready to watch good volleyball. We have been known to come out a little slow, but the entire two days we came out pretty strong. If we didn’t have the lead to start, we were at least only down a couple points. The finals were no different. We came out strong with an early lead and kept that momentum going all match long. During the first set, Betsi and Kelley called a timeout which sparked a loud TKN chant that roared throughout the crowd. Drew, Taryn, and I kind of looked at each other in amazement and then we all looked out into the crowd to soak up that moment. I cannot fully explain what that moment felt like, but I can tell you it was definitely heartwarming and something I don’t think I will ever forget. The amount of support we have received since starting this journey has been insane and it is only growing. We hear you, we feed off you, and we thank you so very much TKN Nation. After giving ourselves a minute, we all came back to focus and realized we had a lot of game left to be played. Drew kept saying all weekend long, “it’s 0-0” no matter if it was 14-9, 8-6, or anything in between. He didn’t want us to lose that focus and that we did not. We were dialed in. 21-16. 21-17. Let the celebration begin. I was jumping on Taryn, and then after shaking hands with the officials we tried a little reversal jump that almost went horribly wrong. I am sure most of you saw my bottoms almost come down. Everyone got a nice look at my lovely tan lines but thankfully that was it. Crisis averted. Beer was being sprayed, Taryn was forgetting about trophies, and Mark was putting the mic in front of our mouths. Those post-game interviews are difficult. You quite literally just become speechless. You have so much adrenaline coursing through your veins and then you must try and put thoughts together and form sentences… tough. I told Mark before we went live to ask Taryn all the questions. He did not fully listen to me, but he did ask Taryn the first question and that is usually the most difficult one, so I was happy. While Taryn was answering I was drinking beer out of the trophy… pretty fun to do!
After seeing our families and establishing that the plan was to head to the bar across the street from the stadium, Taryn and I headed back to the locker room to shower off the sand, sweat, and beer. It was nice to actually have access to a legit locker room. We threw on a nicer looking outfit (jean shorts and a casual shirt), put a little makeup on, and then went out to the court to catch the end of the men’s final. A lot of the other men’s teams were also watching, and it was funny to hear their commentary during the game. They talk a lot of trash, and it is so great. After watching the Taylor’s pull out the W, we met our families at the bar to have a couple drinks and just enjoy each other’s company. Taryn and I quickly realized that we had not eaten food, so we made our way down the street to the only restaurant that was still serving food (which was very weird because it was a Saturday night). Our waitress was fantastic and got Taryn and I’s order in before everyone else’s so it came out rather quick. It probably looked like we had not eaten in a couple days. I felt like a vacuum. I was hungry! In my defense, it was around midnight, so I think I deserved to be that hungry.
Taryn and I did not celebrate as hard as we did in Chicago since we knew we had a long travel day ahead of us. However, once we got back to the room, we were hit with a second wave and decided we had to watch all 3 matches. We finished with heavy eyes yet huge smiles… we were the 2022 AVP Phoenix Championships Champions!
P.S. Yes, you are not crazy Drew’s hair is platinum. Why? We made a bet with him that if we won Chicago, he had to dye his hair blonde. And well, I think you all know how that went ;)
By: Kristen Nuss
