Beach volleyball has taken Taryn Brasher further than she ever imagined. Along the way, she and Kristen Cruz have gone from fighting their way through qualification tournaments to the very top of the game, rising to world No. 1, competing for the sport’s biggest titles and representing the United States at the Olympic Games.
There is one thing, however, that Brasher values above all else in volleyball.
“I think I’m most grateful for, especially in the earlier part of our career, the experiences,” Brasher said.
“We started off so serious that we were like, ‘We are only here to play volleyball. We’re not going to do anything else.’ And we kind of came to the realisation where it’s like, ‘Hey, I get to travel the world with my best friend. I get to play beach volleyball, and we can experience a little bit of that.’”
“I think I am very proud of how much we have evolved and how I am so grateful for all the experiences.”
Those experiences have accompanied a journey few teams have experienced in such a short space of time. After building a successful partnership at Louisiana State University, Brasher and Cruz made the transition to the international game and quickly established themselves among beach volleyball’s top duos.
Their rise eventually took them to the top of the world rankings and onto some of the sport’s biggest stages. Even now, Brasher admits the scale of that achievement can be difficult to fully comprehend.
“We started from the bottom of a qualifier to world number one. It’s kind of mind-blowing, actually, fully mind-blowing,” Brasher said.
“We’ve definitely put in a lot of hours, a lot of time, a lot of sacrifices, a lot of effort, but the feeling is just kind of really surreal.
“And when you’re in the midst of it, I don’t really think that you can fully appreciate the journey and the length of the journey. I always think at the end of the year we look back and we’re like, ‘Man, why were we not more proud of ourselves for that finish or doing this right?’”
Their rise through the international ranks did not happen overnight. Before becoming one of the world’s leading teams, Brasher and Cruz were still trying to earn opportunities on the Beach Pro Tour and build the ranking points needed to compete regularly against the sport’s best.
Those memories remain a powerful reminder of how far they have come.
“I feel like we’ve gone in waves, but grateful for the little moments,” she said.
Taryn Brasher and Kristen Cruz celebrate their Coolangatta victory in 2022
“And, hey, last year we didn’t get to go to Switzerland when we wanted to because we couldn’t get in. We couldn’t even get into a tournament. We snuck into the bottom of a qualifier in Australia at 2021 or 2022. It’s just crazy how much it’s evolved.
“I really do think that it’s so easy for us to look back and be like, ‘We get to play here. We get to be doing this.’ I think it’s definitely a huge factor that we wanted to be here so bad and now we’re finally here and to just enjoy every single moment of it.”
This World Volleyball Day on July 7, celebrate the courage to take chances and embrace new experiences through volleyball. Share the moments that defined your journey on social media and add #WorldVolleyballDay for the world to see. Your story could inspire someone else to take their first leap.
