Folks, it is time to get on the Nuss bus and the Kloth car
Beach Volleyball is one of the most watched sports in the Olympics and LSU will be represented in it for the first time ever in the Paris Olympics.
More than just representing, the former LSU pair of Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth representing the United States enter as the second rank pair in the world and one of the favorites to medal.
It might be surprising if you have not followed NCAA Beach Volleyball over the last six years that the Tigers would produce an Olympic contender. Those who have followed know that LSU has been one of the most dominant programs in that time frame with three final four finishes and finishing the abbreviated 2020 season as the No. 1 ranked team.
A big part of that success was Nuss and Kloth.
Nuss, who is from New Orleans, played her entire career at LSU becoming the winningest player in NCAA beach volleyball history with 136 wins in her career.
Kloth transferred to LSU from Creighton and partnered with Kristen Nuss to start the 2021 season replacing Claire Coppola, the second winningest beach volleyball player in NCAA history.
The duo of Kloth and Nuss, or TKN, was instant success as they did not lose a single game in the 2021 season, their final season.
TKN made an immediate splash going professional in the American Association of Volleyball Professionals Beach tour winning rookie of the year in 2021 and becoming the only pair to win multiple AVP majors in 2022.
In 2023, TKN took a step further in international competitions by gaining six medal finishes in the Interational Beach Volleyball tournament finals including two top finishes.
The duo entered 2024 having skyrocketed to the second ranked pair in the world but had some initial struggles to start the year after failing to make the top eight in the first two major tournaments of the year.
TKN regrouped winning silver in the Elite 16 in Brasilia before winning gold in the final two major tournaments before the Olympics.
The former Tigers are playing as hot as they did in LSU’s Death Volley and enter the Olympics playing arguably the best in the world with just 20 points separating them from the top spot.
They will still have a tough climb to medal.
TKN open Saturday against Heather Bansley and Sophie Bankovec of Canada under the Eifffel Tower. Bansley and Bankovec were the four seed in the group due to qualifying through continental play but are ranked 21st in the world.
The lowest ranked pair in the group at 22nd, Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar from Australia, will be their second match in Paris on Monday. Do not let the ranking fool you, they are the reigning silver medalists and more than capable of making a run for a medal too.
The Tigers close on Thursday with the lone beach volleyball pair from China in Xue Chen and Xia Xinyi who are ranked 10th in the world. Xue Chen won bronze in 2008 in front of the home crowd in Beijing.
TKN will play all three of these matches at 3 pm CST. The Tigers will need to finish in the top three of the group to advance.
Advancing is just the beginning of the goals for Nuss and Kloth though. They have the talent and the ability to take the gold.
To do that, they will need get through the top pair in the world Ana Patricia Silva and Duda Lisboa of Brazil.
That has proven a tough task as Nuss and Kloth are 1-9 all-time versus the Brazilian duo, but there is hope. In the last meeting, TKN swept the match 21-17 and 21-15.
Along with the Brazilians other medal favorites include 2023 World Champions Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng from the United States, Katja Stan and Raïsa Schoon of the Netherlands, Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson of Canada, and Carolina Solberg Salgado and Bárbara Seixas of Brazil.
Keep an eye out on Swiss pair Tanja Hüberli and Nina Brunner who have been playing like one of the best pairs in the country.
Still, Nuss and Kloth have the talent to beat anyone and if they play at their recent level, they have a strong chance to bring home Olympic gold.