When we last talked to beach volleyball partners Kristen Cruz and Taryn Brasher, it was a little over two years ago, they had just qualified for the Paris Olympics – under their maiden names, Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth – and the possibilities seemed endless for the pair that had played together at Louisiana State.
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There are still mountains to climb. Cruz and Brasher reached the Round of 16 in Paris but lost to eventual silver medalists Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson of Canada. And while it’s too early to obsess over it, LA28 is almost certainly in the backs of their minds.
In the meantime, they’ve grown as a team. They came into this year’s Manhattan Beach Open as two-time defending champions in the most famous of the sport’s traditional tournaments – yep, the term “three-peat” is heard on the sand, too – and the Thursday ceremony at which their plaques were affixed to the Manhattan Beach pier was special.
“I call it our Super Bowl because it really is,” Cruz said in a phone conversation this week. “I mean, it’s just so special that forever will your names be on the pier. Hopefully I’m blessed with kids one day and coming out to Manhattan Beach I can walk down the pier and show them my name.
“That alone, right there, is just something you don’t take for granted, and you really want to go out there and keep trying to do it.”
Cruz and Brasher began play Friday with a 21-10, 21-17 victory over qualifiers Maddy Byrne and Quinn Perry, and followed that a couple of hours later by beating Devanne Sours and Thais Treumann, 21-14, 21-14. They’ll face Chloe Loreen and Corinne Quiggle Saturday morning at 8 in the winners’ bracket.
And they’re on something of a roll this season. They’ve won three overseas tournaments: João Pessoa, Brazil, in March, Saquarema, Brazil in April and Gstaad, Switzerland, in July. And they’ve spent four weekends this summer in the AVP League representing the Austin Aces, and their team has qualified for the league’s championship weekend Sept. 5-6 on Oak Street Beach in Chicago.
Brasher, 29, and Cruz, 28, have had quite the continuing education in their six years as a partnership, one at LSU and five as professionals. And yes, playing in Paris was a true challenge and learning experience.
“I mean, I think that’s what sports is all about, how you’re going to come back from things that challenge you and (how) you can’t win them all, and taking the lessons from all of the good and the bad that come with that,” Brasher said.
“So I think we took a lot from it. I still completely trust Kristen probably even more now, and I think trust is one of the biggest components of our game and beach volleyball in general.”
Cruz recalled the Olympic competition as a lifelong dream come true, “and then I feel like it came and went and it was like, ‘oh, my goodness,’ ” she said. “And now we move on to the next thing, and it was like, ‘What is the next thing?’ “
Both women noted the stress, the nerves, the ultra-amped environment of Olympic competition and the realization that you’re representing something far bigger than yourselves, especially at the very beginning.
To survive it was itself an accomplishment. But to not medal, Cruz said, “kind of just (lit) a fire in us. We didn’t think we put out our best performance, especially in that (Round of 16) against Brandie and Mel. …
“So I think from that point on we wanted to prove that that really was kind of a mishap, and just kind of a poor luck of the draw.”
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And to have that experience “under your belt and have those nerves and be able to control that and just see how your body reacts. I think it’s huge,” Brasher said.
But the possibilities two years from now at Alamitos Beach remain filed away. First things first.
The game is different these days, especially domestically because of the AVP League format introduced last year. Brasher and Cruz finished 5-3 in their eight league matches and won 11 of 19 sets, which in league play are played to 15 compared to 21 for the outdoor game.
Add to that differing conditions – no wind or sun at the indoor venues used on some league weekends, and the difference between trucked in sand and natural beach sand. For example, as Cruz noted, the Manhattan Beach surface is “probably the deepest sand in the world, so some of those sharper angles aren’t really going to exist much, and some people may not have the legs to get up and hit as long throughout the tournament.”
“I think that’s the best part about beach volleyball,” Brasher said. “There’s a lot of chaos that goes with it, and whoever can handle that the best and the most is going to be successful.
“So instead of focusing on what it’s not, it’s just another game. It’s the same exact court. It’s the same exact net. And you’re just playing to a smaller score … Focusing and dwelling on what you don’t have is the best way to get frustrated.”
A beach partnership is sort of like a marriage – and Cruz and Brasher probably both understand that better now than they did before their own marriages.
“You’re constrantly working on communication,” Cruz said. “I mean, this is year six of playing together. … In those pressure moments, how can we communicate better? That’s something we’re always working on.
“But as far as how do we stay together from the very beginning, it was like, ‘We’re doing this together.’ And fortunately for us, we’ve had a lot of success, and even in those tough moments it never was like, ‘Oh, what if we played with someone else?’ It was like, ‘No, we’re gonna figure this out and we’re going to be better for it.’
“And it’s crazy to me that, in my opinion, we still just keep progressively getting better and better. And I do give a huge credit to our coach (Drew Hamilton), who still is finding those one or two percents that each of us can improve our game.”
As Brasher put it: “Spending that much time with one person can be challenging. Obviously we’re going to have our differences – but yeah, I absolutely trust Kristen with my life. She is basically my sister now.
“So yeah, you have to work through some things. You have to have tough conversations. And I do think that it builds your repertoire for how to deal with conflict, how to better your relationship. What are you bringing to the table? How can you best communicate?”
Maybe Rule 1 should be not to look too far ahead – two years down the road, for example – but rather to just take life in smaller bites.
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“Yes,” Brasher said. “Otherwise it’s not digestible.”