Kristen Nass (left) and Taryn Kross chase the ball during a game against Devanne Sours and Marin Quina at the AVP Huntington Beach Open on Friday in Huntington Beach. Cross and Nuss won in two sets. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen of Orange County Register/SCNG)
HUNTINGTON BEACH — If you're a beach volleyball fan, you've probably heard of Kristen Nass and Taryn Kross. If you don't know yet, thanks to NBC, you'll be pretty well versed by the end of the summer.
Nuss and Cross, the top seeds in the women's field heading into this weekend's AVP Huntington Beach Open, are the second-ranked women's team in the world behind Brazilians Ana Patricia and Duda. They have a fascinating backstory, in fact, including the cross-combination of the 5-foot-6 Nass from Louisiana and the 6-4 South Dakotan, and their status as one of the few teams on the AVP Tour. There are some fascinating stories. We are not based in Southern California.
And they will head to Paris as the first athletes to qualify for this summer's U.S. Olympic team. If all goes as they hope, their performances, stories and personalities should get plenty of coverage time on NBC, and who knows what commercial opportunities will follow.
“That would be amazing,” Cross said.
“Yes,” Nas added. “I don't think either of us think about it enough.”
This is not a sudden story. The 26-year-olds began playing together at LSU in 2020 “in the darkness of COVID,” Cross said. Nuss is from Louisiana, and Cross played indoor volleyball at Creighton before moving to LSU as a graduate transfer in January 2019.
Since partnering at the beginning of the 2021 college season, the results have been magical. They finished their final season at LSU at 36-0. As a professional, they have won 6 tournaments on the domestic AVP tour and 5 tournaments on the FIVB (international tournament). In 2023, both won five races and qualified for the Olympics with a win at the World Tour Finals in Doha, Qatar in December.
They weren't aware of it until USA Volleyball officials told them in January, but Nuss said it didn't hit home until “three weeks ago, two weeks ago.”
The combination of a tall person and a short person may be a conversation piece, but they're making it work. Nuss, the shortest U.S. beach volleyball Olympian since she beat Barbra Fontana 5-6 at the 1996 Atlanta Games, has used a combination of pace, craftiness and ruggedness to find success.
One article likened her to Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux, who lacked speed but used his change of speed and pinpoint position to eject people. On Friday, as she watched Nuss here on the court, she saw similar traits on the balls where she puts them in the right spots, out of reach of her opponents.
Nas said her aunt emails her the same instructions before every tournament: “Hit where your opponent is not.”
“And that's just our sport and that's my job,” she said. “But I give full credit to (LSU) coach Drew Hamilton from the beginning. I mean, yes, I'm undersized, so seeing me be better than anybody is No. So it's all about placement and very court vision and being as rough as possible on defense and just making it harder for the other team to score. I give full credit to Drew Hamilton for turning me into a great player.”
Cross, who was an indoor All-American at Creighton University, said it took him “probably a year and a half” to adjust, having to understand what transferred to the sand and what didn't.
“It definitely hit rock bottom,” she said. “It was a big challenge. You have to deal with all the elements. … Yes, volleyball is in, but it's nothing like normal stuff.”
They didn't initially play together at LSU, but when they convinced Hamilsion to join them, something clicked. Nas set an NCAA record with 139 wins from 2017 to 2021. Both were Beach All-Americans in their final seasons.
“We were just friends,” Nuss said. “And then it evolved into a beach volleyball partnership. The fact that we started as friends, I think that's what started it all. And now she's my sister, an adopted child from Louisiana. He has been adopted into my family.”
How inseparable are they?
“We go to family events, and it's Christmas, so people say, 'Where's Kristen?'” Cross said. “It's like, 'With her family.'”
So, is there an initiation process required to become a Louisiana adopter?
“She had to try the crawfish,” Nuss said. “But I peeled it for her.”
“Little eyeballs are staring at you,” Cross said.
“She did go to Mardi Gras,” Nuss said. “She's been through hurricanes. She's been through it all.”
They represent their state with their hats and train at a beach volleyball facility in Baton Rouge, eschewing the Southern California beach volleyball scene.
“There was a reason we stayed in Louisiana,” Cross said. “We felt like we had a really good support system there. We had our coach there. And, as Kristen always says, we had to go south to be successful in the professional world of beach volleyball. I wanted to rewrite the script that you don’t have to come to California.”
Nas acknowledged that there's a reason Southern California is considered a beach volleyball capital — “The stands are full and it's a Friday, which is great for the sport” — but she He expressed the feeling that you don't need to be in California to play beach volleyball. The sport may also become attractive to other athletes in other regions.
“And it's nice to get away from everyone for a bit,” she added.
If certain interviews are any indication, their personalities are ideal for the kind of feature coverage NBC is expected to highlight from Paris. But the competitive half of the equation works just as well.
Nas and Cross topped their first match Friday in the shadow of the Huntington Beach pier, dominating qualifiers Devanne Sours and Marin Quina 21-11, 21-11 just after noon, followed by Toni Rodriguez and Gina Quina. They defeated Urango 21-9. , 21-15, pm. They will face Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandi Wilkerson in the winners bracket quarterfinals on Saturday at 2 p.m.
“We think it's important to hone our game and let people point out our weaknesses. Then we go back to practice and train and work on the weaknesses that were exploited,” Cross said. said.
The fewer weaknesses you can identify, the more likely you are to remember them even after the Olympics are over.
jalexander@scng.com
