LeBron James stayed.
The opposite 12,000 who had beforehand packed into Eiffel Tower Stadium for the nightcap seaside volleyball match, between Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth and China’s Chen Xue and Xinyi Xia? Gone. Packed it in after an hour or so climate delay that drenched Paris in lightning and showers and left the stadium an eerie resemblance to the fanless Tokyo Video games.
However James, the flagbearer for the USA, remained along with his household, watching on as Nuss and Kloth closed out their closest match of the Video games, a 15-21, 21-16, 15-12 thriller over China.
“The truth that LeBron stayed is fairly particular,” stated Nuss, who additionally added that she might now examine “enjoying on the base of the Eiffel Tower in entrance of zero folks at midnight” off her bucket checklist.
One other examine off that checklist? Profitable pool within the Olympic Video games.
Nuss and Kloth at the moment are 3-0 in pool play, with the win over China and a pair of sweeps over Australia’s Mariafe Artacho and Taliqua Clancy and Canada’s Sophie Bukovec and Heather Bansley. They’re now assured to start playoffs within the spherical of 16, and can play the winner of one of many fortunate loser matchups.
However profitable pool, whereas good, isn’t what they got here to Paris for.
“We got here right here for some {hardware},” Nuss stated. “We’re not content material. I don’t suppose we’ve put our greatest play on the market. Now it’s win or go dwelling. The whole lot must be on the desk.”
Thursday’s match was actually not their greatest. Serve-receive struggles put them in a gap early to Xia and Xue, and after trailing on the opening swap, the People have been by no means capable of regain the lead, dropping their first and solely set of the Video games. Not that they have been overly involved.
That is the type of problem that often rears its head. It did so within the Gstaad Elite16, they usually recovered completely advantageous, with a second straight gold medal. They recovered simply as effectively in Paris, leaning, as ever, on their world-class protection to bail them out till the passing steadied.
“I didn’t cross the ball effectively,” Kloth, perpetually frank with herself, stated afterwards. “That was an enormous issue and I needed to relax. I leaned into Kristen and stated I want you proper now. I used to be struggling, so I used to be leaning on her.”
Nuss is content material enjoying that function, for she is aware of that, regardless of how uneven issues could also be getting on offense, they will all the time lean on each other — they usually can all the time lean on their protection. Nuss added 11 extra digs to her tournament-leading 44 — 16 greater than No. 2 Mariafe Artacho.
“I do know if serve obtain is struggling, I belief our protection and I do know we’re going to have the ability to earn factors,” stated Nuss, who was voted the 2023 Seaside Professional Tour Defensive Participant of the 12 months. “It was simply trusting us and I knew our serve obtain was going to settle itself out.”
It did, because it nearly all the time does. Even when the climate delay halted their momentum, up 3-2 within the third, it did little however delay the inevitable. They stayed energetic all through the delay, their coach conserving them transferring.
“Little time for dilly dally,” Nuss stated.
They neither dillied nor dallied. China by no means led once more because the USA slowly tacked onto their lead, alas closing it after midnight.
“I simply thought again to follow the place our coach [Drew Hamilton] says ‘You must win these 5 factors proper now,’ ” Kloth stated. “On the finish of follow, you’re useless drained, however you’re going to discover a approach to earn 5 factors, earn 10 factors.”
They discovered a approach to earn 15, and once they turned to the empty stadium to provide their thanks, Kloth’s jaw plummeted to the sand, her arms cupping the facet of her face for there, on the high, have been 4 lone spectators, whooping and cheering for the USA.
Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth are a present LeBron James couldn’t miss.
