Four Tigers Qualify For New AVP League

Manhattan Beach, CA. – Kristen Nuss, Taryn Kloth, Toni Rodriguez and Kylie Deberg have qualified for the inaugural AVP League. Only the top eight pairs in the country are eligible to play in a regular season spanning September through November.

The regular season tournaments will take place in Los Angeles, Miami, San Diego, Austin, Palm Beach, Oceanside, Anaheim, and Dallas. Each pair will play in four of the eight spots, only playing two games on said weekend. The top overall teams will then participate in an end-of-season playoff tournament and championship match.

Each pair is assigned a team name and a city to represent. Nuss and Kloth make up the Austin Aces, Rodrigez makes up half of the San Diego Smash and Deberg is half of the Dallas Dream.

Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth are coming off a successful AVP run post the 2024 Olympics.  The pair earned the title of champion at the Manhattan Beach Open and earned second at the AVP Chicago Main Draw.

Nuss and Kloth are no stranger to success in their beach volleyball career. In their time at LSU, they quickly solidified themselves as the top college beach pair in the nation. They were a perfect 36-0 on Court 1, winning in dominant fashion on a consistent basis. After the perfect season, Nuss had accumulated 139 victories to become the winningest college beach volleyball player of all-time and Kloth had won 49 matches in a row to close her college career.

Following the collegiate season, Kloth and Nuss quickly went to work on their professional careers, launching their TKN team. They went on to enjoy a successful rookie season on the AVP Tour. Kloth and Nuss made their professional presence immediately known, winning their first AVP Gold Series event at the 2021 Atlanta Open after playing their way into the main draw out of the qualifying tournament. Kloth and Nuss were named AVP Co-Rookies of the Year in 2021 and Nuss was named AVP Defender of the Year. They won three more AVP events in 2022, the only duo on tour to win multiple events through the year. In 2023, the pair earned AVP Women’s Team of the Year and Nuss earned AVP Most Valuable Player and Defender.

Rodriguez was a dual sport athlete in her time at LSU, playing both indoor and beach volleyball. She played two seasons with the LSU Beach Volleyball team and made quite an impact in the Tigers success. In 2020, she went 10-2 on Court 3 with five wins over AVCA Top 20 teams. Clinched the match on Court 3 to secure the first ever win against UCLA and played a crucial role in helping lift the Sandy Tigs to their first ever No. 1 ranking in both the AVCA and Dig Polls. Rodriguez was granted an extra year of eligibility due to COVID-19 to play another season for the Sandy Tigs in 2021. She went 24-6 overall and came up big in an elimination match at the NCAA Championships on Court 3, helping LSU defeat TCU to keep its season alive.

Deberg made her mark in the LSU Beach Volleyball program in her short time at LSU. She was a 2023 AVCA First-Team All-American, 2023 CCSA All-Conference Team, 2022 AVCA National Pair of the Week and earned AVCA Top Flight honors on Court 2 for the 2022 season. Deberg also won the first ever AVCA Fall Pairs National Championship and the USA Volleyball Men’s and Women’s Beach Collegiate Challenge; both with partner Ellie Shank.