Taryn Kloth
6-4
PARIS, France (July 29, 2024) – Facing the silver medalists from the Tokyo Games, the U.S. beach team of Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss stayed unbeaten in the Paris Olympics with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) victory over Mariafe Artacho Del Solar and Taliqua Clancy of Australia on Monday. Kloth/Nuss are now 2-0, while the Australian team fell to 1-1.
The world’s No. 2 ranked team, Kloth and Nuss will conclude pool play against Xue Chen and Xia Xinyi of China on Thursday at 1 p.m. PT (10 p.m. local).
Nuss registered a double-double with 14 points (12 kills, 2 aces) and 16 digs. Kloth joined Nuss with 12 kills and added four digs. The U.S. benefited from 13 Australian errors.
“I truly think it is trusting your training,” said Kloth. “Trusting each other and trusting your coach that he trained us and we really did work very hard and did very meticulous training to get here.”
The first set was tied at 11 when the U.S. went on a 5-1 run to take a four-point advantage, 16-12. Nuss played great defense during the run with two particularly impressive digs to make it 14-11 and then scored on back-to-back plays, one on a shot that hit the line and another on a drop shot to finish the run.
The Australian team pulled within two points, 16-14, but two Kloth kills on tap shots down the line and a hitting error gave the U.S. a 19-15 lead. Kloth ripped a kill for the 20th point and great defense and a punch shot kill by Nuss ended the opening set. Each U.S. player recorded six kills in the set.
The U.S. took a 12-8 lead in the second set when Nuss scored to end the longest rally of the match. Mariafe/Clancy scored three consecutive points to pull within a point, but the U.S. used a service error and two Kloth kills, one on an off-speed shot and another on her patented shot to the back corner, to regain a four-point lead.
Nuss served an ace that trickled off the net to make it 18-13, but the Australian duo closed the gap to two points, keyed by back-to-back aces. Nuss scored to make it 19-16 and then her flying dig kept a rally going that ended on an Australian error. Nuss finished the match with a kill off the block. Just as they did in the first set, Nuss and Kloth each registered six kills with Nuss adding two aces.
“For us its obviously very pressure-filled moments,” said Nuss. “I think sometimes it’s one person needs to rely on the other person and vice versa and I think that’s really important in a team dynamic, so we are just going to keep trying to do that.”
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