2 Weeks in Brazil

2 weeks in Brazil with 2 back-to-back events in Saquarema and Brasília… something we have only done 1 prior time with Doha World Tour Finals leading into Doha Elite 16 in 2023. We bounced around the idea of just packing 1 weeks’ worth of clothing and then doing laundry but decided to use all 50 pounds and some and pack for 2 full weeks. (ps. 2 tourneys in 1 means a longer blog… prepare yourself)

In our previous Brazilian experiences, not many people spoke a lot of English and Saquarema was certainly the least amount we had ever encountered. It had been a while since we had to pull out the google translate, but it was very much needed within our first 30 minutes of being in Saquarema. The location of this event is very pretty, right on the ocean coast but getting to it… not easy! BTR -> ATL -> GRU (São Paulo) -> GIG (Rio De Janeiro) -> 2hr car ride to Saquarema. We rolled our luggage into the hotel lobby around 12:20pm on Sunday, April 6. After an 18hr travel day and only about 4 hours of sleep we were looking rough. All we wanted was to get into the hotel room and shower, but unfortunately, our room check in was not until 2pm so we left our luggage and hit a nearby bakery in search of lunch. No English was spoken like previously mentioned so there was a lot of pointing at the menu. I was trying to take pictures of the menu on the wall and use google translate but my cellular service was spotty. Needless to say, our first attempt at ordering food was in no way shape or form smooth, and we didn’t even know what was actually going to come to the table. It all ended up working out. We were fed, we got coffee and it was time for check-in. Travel day complete!

When I wrote the above, I thought our adventures for the day were not going to be writing worthy… of course the exact time we decided to walk the 30 minutes to dinner it decided to start raining. We got back to the hotel room around 6:45pm and Taryn took a cold shower. I was not about that, so I started messaging with reception and they said they had to turn something on. I also noticed by the shower head (not sure how Taryn didn’t see it) but there were different switches. I flipped it to the word that translated to “winter” thinking that in winter they would want to have the water warm. It worked! I can’t say I took a steaming showering but it was definitely not cold. Sorry Taryn! Now I can say travel day complete as we sit in our room at 7:12pm hoping to be asleep before 8pm.

Our normal pre tourney routine was in full swing. Practice with a team, (Monday was with Anouk/Zoé Vergé-Dépré), find a cute coffee place with good wifi, find lunch, walk around and stretch. That pretty much sums up what our pre tourney days look like. With my wedding planning in progress, the good coffee spot with wifi is of high importance as it just so happened my mom was facetiming me in to see some reception venues. We do have a lot of free time on the road so planning a wedding is fun because it is giving me something to do. Taryn may not love it because sometimes I am just locked into my computer for hours without speaking to her. In addition to all the above, we typically have a treatment session with one of the USA providers on the trip. My treatment session looked a little different on this Mondy because Beth’s luggage did not make it onto her plane, so we improvised by taking a cushion from a pool chair and putting in on top of the patio table at her hotel. Not ideal but it got the job done. Tuesday was rinse and repeat and then Wednesday evening meant gameday!

I think this first game at all events is the most nerve racking. You don’t know how the sand is going to play and it’s just a new start, so the jitters are definitely high. I frequently wonder if teams/athletes that have been playing for numerous years have this same feeling or if maybe it goes away with experience. Anyway, we thankfully started on a good note with a W but the volleyball was certainly not smooth. I think I told Taryn after that match, “wow, I am sure glad that first one is over.”Thursday morning came early as I was excited to roll over and wake Taryn up wishing her a happy 28th birthday! I know she would have preferred to spend her bday with family and friends but getting some revenge on Carol/Rebecca to win pool was a decent birthday in my opinion. We celebrated with a cookie from Café Da Vila, the coffee shop we frequented often.

Winning pool put us straight into the round of 12 so we were able to watch our opponents duke it out Friday morning while we were sipping coffee in air conditioning. Of course, our opponents ended up being the one team we practiced with, the Vergé-Dépré sisters. Zoé is one of our friends on tour which makes competing against her so weird. Fortunately for us but unfortunately for Zoe our volleyball was starting to smooth out and our level of play was slightly increasing which allowed us to take home another W and book a spot into the quarterfinals. In Brazil especially, there are always a ton of fans the entire tournament, and like most fans at beach pro tour events they all want the tops that we compete in, and some even ask for our hats or sunglasses or literally anything that we have. So, it was funny when one of the kids asked if he could have Taryn’s whole bag.

This new format for Elite events this year means that if you win your first three games the only time you are playing twice in one day is Saturday for the quarters and semis. This also means that during the quarters you are fighting for a chance to play on Sunday but also for another hotel night Sunday night. (If you lose in quarters, you get kicked out of the hotel room on Sunday). After winning against our compatriots Cannon/Kraft, we sat on the bench to breathe and then I said, “ayyye, we don’t have to pay for another hotel room!” It’s sometimes the little things that are fun to celebrate. Müller/Tillman was our semi matchup. A team that always plays us tough as we both have very similar playing styles. Like other matches between them it went three and during that third set I had Mexico on the brain. I did not want to be playing for a bronze medal on Sunday… I wanted gold medal match. We made some key plays and pulled it out with a lucky one arm dig that landed on the line to guarantee us a medal!

The weather in Saquarema was pretty solid the whole event minus one or two afternoon showers. Of course, on Sunday, it was the hottest of them all with little to no clouds and the finals scheduled for 1pm. Deep sand, warm weather and a three set match is definitely a little taxing on the body. Unfortunately, we left the Brazilians fans very happy as we saw ourselves lose to the home team Thamela/Victora 15-10. Everyone was exhausted. They did their post game interview while sitting in the sand unable to stand and I sat in the massage therapy room drinking a beer trying to relieve the small cramps that were trying to take over my toes and feet. Would the Corona have tasted better if we would have won? Probably, but it did help relieve my cramps. Think the açaí cup I enjoyed with it also helped. Another podium! Another time for me to not be able to open the champagne bottle. Thankfully the world’s best blocker, Anders Mol, came to my rescue and assisted so I was slightly delayed to the champagne spraying. I love and hate the champagne because you walk away so sticky but also who cares because you just got a medal right??!

THE START OF TOUNEY TWO… if you want to take a break and come back to finish, I would not blame you!

Neither T or I have ever been to Rio de Janeiro. We both have heard such great things about it so we figured this was perfect opportunity to spend one day in Rio. We had to fly out of Rio to get to Brasilia so logistically it just made sense. Monday morning came quickly as 5:38am was the wake-up call. We, along with some other USA peeps, loaded up the shuttle in prep for our 2-hour drive to Rio. Before we pulled off, Taryn asked if everyone had their passport. Unfortunately, one of our providers in a panic exclaimed she could not find hers. We tried to rethink everywhere it could have been. Everyone felt for her as we have all been in that situation of panic not knowing where our passport was. We Ubered back to her hotel and thankfully found it on the floor under the bed… phew.

We were obviously a little delayed in getting to Rio however our hotel room was still not ready on arrival, so we left our bags and went to see what all the hype about Rio was about. I get it now… since we only had half a day our plan was to just make the 5 mile walk of two of the more famous beaches, Copacabana and Ipanema. Wow, wow, wow just absolute majestic, natural beauty all around between the mountains in the distance and the beautiful Atlantic Ocean waves crashing on the beach. We just kept saying wow. It was the perfect amount of walking for us before we headed back to the hotel right by the local airport for dinner and zzz’s. Our flight to Brasília was around 9am so it allowed us time to take advantage of the hotel breakfast that was served on a terrace area overlooking the beautiful Sugarloaf mountain. It was a good planning decision on my part to stay at that hotel… patting myself on the back for that one ha.

The quick hour flight was nice, and our hotel room was even ready before check in time! With the quick turnaround between tournaments, it was nice to have a more technical practice with one of the Klinger’s as unfortunately one of them was under the weather. Fortunately for us, it was seriously ideal as we were more so looking for light movement and not a crazy intense practice. Like I stated earlier that first game of an event is always a little more nerve racking because of the sand. In Saquarema the sand was very deep. Brasília was the opposite. The sand was more clay and dirt like which made it way more jumpy and when you add in some afternoon showers it gets very packed. We quickly noticed this during our Tuesday practice.Wednesday meant gameday again but first I had to complete and pretty important task… we hit a coffee shop for me to virtually meet with Trey and our potential priest for our wedding. The meeting went great, and we found ourselves our priest! Lunch and time to compete!

I knew going into our first game on Wednesday it was going to be a battle both physically and mentally just because our bodies weren’t necessarily feeling great, and it was first one after getting on the podium three days prior. We did what needed to be done against the very physical Dutch team and found ourselves in a position to win one more game and put ourselves at the top of our pool. But first we had to beat another Brazil team and something about playing Brazil in Brazil is just different. They are definitely fueled by their passionate fans, but we managed and silenced the crowd. Celebrated with some post-match treatment. We had to keep our provider Emma fueled so while she was treating Taryn I was feeding her açaí. We like to take care of our people!!

Friday’s game wasn’t until 8pm so we had a lot of time to chill. We can only sit at a coffee shop for so long, so we did that as long as possible then watched the rain come down from our hotel room before peppering outside the hotel room. Our pre match routine for the entire time in Brazil was to make a classic PB&J sandwich an hour and half before match time so just like all other games we were eating out PB&J and getting prepared for the 7pm shuttle to the venue. We again found ourselves playing against Anouk and Zoé and this time it was even more intense. We were not playing our best and they were definitely making more plays. As I hit a deep high line on the retreating Anouk at 14-13 in the third set, I was hoping it was out of her reach. She was able to touch it but not control it and we were back into the quarters and back playing for another shot at Sunday! To get to Sunday, we first had to play against the Italians Gottardi/Orsi Toth who were playing on house money as they were awarded one of the lucky losers spots. Gottardi is also one of the most physical players on the women’s side so that plus jumpy sand means she can do extra freakish things. Thankfully, we played some good ball and pulled out the nail biter. 3 tournaments and 3 Sundays… lets goo! Celebrated with of course açaí and some more treatment! Brandi Wilkerson came to my rescue at the açaí shack by translating my order to the adorable older gentleman who could not quite understand what I was wanting in the açaí cup. We joked about how Taryn needed to learn another language!

Semifinal time! Against familiar foes – same Dutch team we played in our first game. They were on a hot streak as it was their best finish in an elite event, so we were looking to spoil their run. Beating a team twice is tough. We found ourselves down a decent amount but stayed steady and made the plays when they mattered most. Gold medal match!

Last year we found ourselves in the same position… gold medal match against the home team Brazil. This year, we did not want the same result! I woke up and I was adamant that we were winning gold this time. 1 because we were missing gold from last year and 1 because we missed out on gold a week prior. That was not going to happen again. We were determined and unlike we normally do we came out hot. We were rolling but in true TKN fashion we let them back in. We gave away points and they made some plays which brought the crowd into it. All I kept thinking… we are not losing this game. I was locked in. All I was seeing was GOLD! Seeing Carol errantly pass my serve for set point had me let out a loud scream which is pretty rare for me. I don’t typically show a ton of emotion but I was pumped to secure that crucial first set and off an ace from me is even more rare so cause for extra celebration.

Set 2 we were once again rolling. Crazy rallies were going our way and then we found ourselves in a little whole unable to find the sand on their side of the net. It was very much a large game of runs in that second set. We found ourselves down in crunch time but neither one of us ever panicked. I was calm that whole time. I knew we would get digs. I was slightly frustrated with myself when I hit a transition ball into the net that would have secured us a two point advantage, so when the opportunity to win the match on another transition swing I was leaving no doubt. I went up trying to hit the last ball as hard as I possibly could. In my head I absolutely destroyed it but in seeing replays I really didn’t hit it that hard haha but hey it scored and que the celebration!!! Back on top the podium. A place that is so hard to get to and a place that makes you want to keep chasing that feeling. I am more motivated than ever to keep striving to reach that top spot. For now, we celebrate with a little açaí and some Fogo de Chão with our provider Emma because I mean you can’t go to Brazil and not go to a Brazilian steakhouse. I ate too much picanha but hey that’s a problem for the next day. Will enjoy these next couple days to celebrate with Drew and friends and then we go right back to work. We know what we need to be better at it!

p.s. 4am shuttle pick up sucks but we CANNOT WAIT TO BE HOME! 2 weeks away is rough.