Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth each had 12 kills on Monday evening.
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Kloth/Nuss Sweep 2020 Olympic Silver Medalists, Improve to 2-0 in Paris
7/29/2024 4:00:00 PM | Volleyball
Taryn Kloth is Creighton's first female Olympian
PARIS, France -- Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss improved to 2-0 at the 2024 Paris Olympics with a 2-0 win over 2020 Olympic Silver Medalists Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy on Monday night in Paris.
Scores of the match were 21-16, 21-16, as Team TKN upped its record to 8-4 all-time against the powerful Australian pair.
Team USA pulled away late in the first set to earn a 21-16 victory in a game that featured four ties and a pair of lead changes. The Americans broke free from an 11-11 deadlock to move ahead 14-11. After Australia drew within two at 17-15, a kill from Kloth started a set-ending 4-1 run. Kloth had six kills in nine swings during the opener, while Nuss also had six kills, including the clincher.
Tied at 5-all in the second set, Kloth had back-to-back kills and Nuss an ace as the lead grew to 8-5. The margin stretched to four at both 11-7 and 12-8Â The Aussies used a 3-0 spurt to draw within one before an Australia serving error and a pair of Kloth kills returned the lead to four at 15-11. Nuss clipped the net for an ace as USA matched its largest lead of the evening at 18-13. Australia served up consecutive aces during a 3-0 run to narrow the gap to two (18-16), but Nuss had two kills and the Aussies had an attack error in the final three points.
Both Kloth and Nuss finished with 12 kills, as Kloth hit .529 and Nuss hit .370. Nuss had as many digs as Australia's duo combined (16), and Kloth added four digs in limited opportunities. Both Australian women finished with 10 kills, but the duo also combined for nine attack errors and six serving miscues.
Ranked second in the world, Kloth and Nuss are making their Olympic debuts, whereas Artacho del Solar and Clancy were both making their third Olympic appearance and are ranked 21st in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Rankings..
The match was held inside Eiffel Tower Stadium, a 14,000-seat Olympic beach volleyball facility located near the base of the world-famous landmark.
Kloth is the seventh former Creighton student-athlete to appear in an Olympics, and first female. Along with Duncan McGuire of the U.S. Olympic Men's Soccer team, Kloth gives Creighton two competitors at the same Olympics for the first time since 1936, when Willard Schmidt (Basketball) and Carl Vincequerra (Boxing) did so. Other previous Bluejay Olympians include Scott Servais (1988 Baseball), Chad McConnell (1992 Baseball) and Gregory Echenique (2016 Basketball for Venezuela). Schmidt and Servais are the only two Bluejays to earn a medal, with each man taking home a gold medal.
Kloth played indoor volleyball at Creighton from 2015-18, where she was a two-time AVCA Honorable Mention All-American and MVP of the 2017 BIG EAST Tournament. She remains fourth in program history with 1,427 career kills. The Sioux Falls, S.D. native was just as accomplished in the classroom, where the Finance major was named BIG EAST Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year and won the BIG EAST Institutional Female Scholar-Athlete Award, BIG EAST Sport Excellence Award and BIG EAST Michael Tranghese Postgraduate Leadership Award in addition to being a College Sports Communicators Third Team Academic All-American. After earning her undergraduate degree at Creighton in the fall of 2018, Kloth transferred to LSU where she began playing beach volleyball for the first time. After going 14-0 in the COVID-abbreviated spring of 2020, she paired with Nuss for the 2021 season as the duo went 36-0 and was named National Pair of the Year by the AVCA and Volleyball Magazine.
Kloth and Nuss return to the court on Thursday at 3 pm Central with a match against the Chinese duo of Chen Xue and Xinyi Xia, who are ranked 10th in the world. Thursday's contest will be broadcast on NBC as well as Peacock. Xue and Xia won against Canadians Sophie Bukovec and Heather Bansley on Monday afternoon (21-15, 21-19). Kloth and Nuss swept Bukovec/Bansley (21-17, 21-14) on Saturday night, while Mariafe del Solar/Clancy topped Xue/Xia (22-20, 14-21, 16-14) in three sets earlier that day.
The competition formula for beach volleyball at the Paris Games features 24 teams split into six pools. The first round of the tournament will be completed after teams face each of their three pool opponents once. At the end of pool play, the six pool winners, the six pool runners-up and the two best-ranked third-placed teams will qualify directly to the Round of 16, occupying 14 of the 16 spots available. The remaining four third-placed teams will play a "lucky loser" round, composed of two matches, from where the last two teams to play in the Round of 16 will emerge. Starting at this round and continuing through the quarterfinals, semifinals and medal matches, the men's and women's tournaments will progress in a single-elimination format.
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Scores of the match were 21-16, 21-16, as Team TKN upped its record to 8-4 all-time against the powerful Australian pair.
Team USA pulled away late in the first set to earn a 21-16 victory in a game that featured four ties and a pair of lead changes. The Americans broke free from an 11-11 deadlock to move ahead 14-11. After Australia drew within two at 17-15, a kill from Kloth started a set-ending 4-1 run. Kloth had six kills in nine swings during the opener, while Nuss also had six kills, including the clincher.
Tied at 5-all in the second set, Kloth had back-to-back kills and Nuss an ace as the lead grew to 8-5. The margin stretched to four at both 11-7 and 12-8Â The Aussies used a 3-0 spurt to draw within one before an Australia serving error and a pair of Kloth kills returned the lead to four at 15-11. Nuss clipped the net for an ace as USA matched its largest lead of the evening at 18-13. Australia served up consecutive aces during a 3-0 run to narrow the gap to two (18-16), but Nuss had two kills and the Aussies had an attack error in the final three points.
Both Kloth and Nuss finished with 12 kills, as Kloth hit .529 and Nuss hit .370. Nuss had as many digs as Australia's duo combined (16), and Kloth added four digs in limited opportunities. Both Australian women finished with 10 kills, but the duo also combined for nine attack errors and six serving miscues.
Ranked second in the world, Kloth and Nuss are making their Olympic debuts, whereas Artacho del Solar and Clancy were both making their third Olympic appearance and are ranked 21st in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Rankings..
The match was held inside Eiffel Tower Stadium, a 14,000-seat Olympic beach volleyball facility located near the base of the world-famous landmark.
Kloth is the seventh former Creighton student-athlete to appear in an Olympics, and first female. Along with Duncan McGuire of the U.S. Olympic Men's Soccer team, Kloth gives Creighton two competitors at the same Olympics for the first time since 1936, when Willard Schmidt (Basketball) and Carl Vincequerra (Boxing) did so. Other previous Bluejay Olympians include Scott Servais (1988 Baseball), Chad McConnell (1992 Baseball) and Gregory Echenique (2016 Basketball for Venezuela). Schmidt and Servais are the only two Bluejays to earn a medal, with each man taking home a gold medal.
Kloth played indoor volleyball at Creighton from 2015-18, where she was a two-time AVCA Honorable Mention All-American and MVP of the 2017 BIG EAST Tournament. She remains fourth in program history with 1,427 career kills. The Sioux Falls, S.D. native was just as accomplished in the classroom, where the Finance major was named BIG EAST Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year and won the BIG EAST Institutional Female Scholar-Athlete Award, BIG EAST Sport Excellence Award and BIG EAST Michael Tranghese Postgraduate Leadership Award in addition to being a College Sports Communicators Third Team Academic All-American. After earning her undergraduate degree at Creighton in the fall of 2018, Kloth transferred to LSU where she began playing beach volleyball for the first time. After going 14-0 in the COVID-abbreviated spring of 2020, she paired with Nuss for the 2021 season as the duo went 36-0 and was named National Pair of the Year by the AVCA and Volleyball Magazine.
Kloth and Nuss return to the court on Thursday at 3 pm Central with a match against the Chinese duo of Chen Xue and Xinyi Xia, who are ranked 10th in the world. Thursday's contest will be broadcast on NBC as well as Peacock. Xue and Xia won against Canadians Sophie Bukovec and Heather Bansley on Monday afternoon (21-15, 21-19). Kloth and Nuss swept Bukovec/Bansley (21-17, 21-14) on Saturday night, while Mariafe del Solar/Clancy topped Xue/Xia (22-20, 14-21, 16-14) in three sets earlier that day.
The competition formula for beach volleyball at the Paris Games features 24 teams split into six pools. The first round of the tournament will be completed after teams face each of their three pool opponents once. At the end of pool play, the six pool winners, the six pool runners-up and the two best-ranked third-placed teams will qualify directly to the Round of 16, occupying 14 of the 16 spots available. The remaining four third-placed teams will play a "lucky loser" round, composed of two matches, from where the last two teams to play in the Round of 16 will emerge. Starting at this round and continuing through the quarterfinals, semifinals and medal matches, the men's and women's tournaments will progress in a single-elimination format.
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