Team USA women’s beach volleyball squad eliminated
Being perfect in pool play only took Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss, one of the USA’s two women’s beach volleyball teams with legitimate medal aspirations, so far.
Nuss and Kloth fell to Canada’s Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes in two hard-fought sets 19-21 and 18-21 in the Round of 16, ending their Olympic dreams.
The tandem won all three of its pool play matches but that didn’t matter once the knockout round began.
Against Canada, the first set featured runs from both teams, each side finding momentum only to lose it. Canada jumped out to the lead first. Then the USA made its play.
A big block from Kloth gave the U.S. a 11-9 advantage as part of an 8-1 run.
The Canadians battled back to tie the set at 14 and Wilkerson’s block put the Canadians back in front. Trailing 19-17, the USA found a way to tie it at 19. But Kloth’s swing into the net gave Canada the first set victory.
The Americans found themselves trailing again early in the second. Kloth, who finished with all eight of the team’s attack errors, struggled on serve receive for the second straight match and the U.S. was in a 7-3 hole.
The U.S. hung in there but an ace from Canada to make it 15-11 felt like a death knell – until it wasn’t. Nuss and Kloth scraped themselves back into the set. Kloth’s block tied it at 18. Canada scored the final three points of the match to walk away winner.
