LSU Beach Volleyball Duo Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss Qualify for USA Olympic Team

Former LSU beach volleyball teammates Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss were officially selected this week to compete with Team USA at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris next month. They are the first former athletes from LSU's beach volleyball program to qualify for the Olympics.

The pair first met in 2019 when Kloth transferred to LSU after spending the first four years of her collegiate career on the indoor volleyball team at Creighton University. Although Kloth had little experience playing competitive beach volleyball, she successfully transitioned to the sand, winning 18 matches with four different partners, and beginning the 2020 season 13-0 with one partner before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic cut the season short.

Nuss is a New Orleans native and lifelong LSU fan, who joined the fledgling beach volleyball program at Death Volley Stadium in 2017, just three years into its existence. She went on to accumulate 139 career wins during her time at LSU, becoming the winningest college beach volleyball player.

Nuss and Kloth trained together for the first time in the summer of 2020, and played their final collegiate year together as a team, going 36 - 0 in 2021. In May 2021, the duo partnered with LSU to announce their intention to turn professional as TKN Volleyball and compete for a spot in the Paris Olympics - together.

Kloth and Nuss faced an uphill battle to qualify for the Paris Games over the past three years, and fielded calls from prominent voices in the beach volleyball world to split up and pursue a path towards Olympic berths with other partners. However, the two stuck together and meddled in seven Olympic qualifying events in 2023, winning three of those.

The duo stands out in the professional beach volleyball community for their friendship and commitment to each other, and also for their stark height difference (Nuss is 5' 6", Kloth is 6' 4"). Both attribute much of their success to their time at LSU, and maintain a close relationship with the program where it all started.

"This is absolutely a dream come true ... None of this would be happening if it was not for LSU. This is where Taryn and I met, and this is where Taryn and I built and solidified this partnership."

- Kristen Nuss

The 2024 Olympic Games kick off on July 26th, and the beach volleyball competition runs July 27th through August 10th at the base of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

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