Tara & Kim Take Overall Title & Set New Tour Record!

Sunday, June 22, Chicago, IL – By Tara Kuk

What a weekend!  Beach volleyball on North Avenue Beach is a guaranteed good time, but the weekend was all that and more.  Kim, her husband Frank, Wendy, Alex, and I stayed with Frank's family in Hillsdale, IL.  Aunt Pat and Uncle Rick went above an beyond their role as host and made us feel right at home in their beautiful home.  They are just "good people" and it was a pleasure to meet and spend time with them.

Saturday's weather was supposed to be miserable, but it ended up sprinkling lightly around noon and the rest of the time the sun was in and out of the clouds. There were 19 women's teams so Kim and I knew it was going to be a long day of good competition.  We played Rasa and Dana (a frequent match up for us) in the quarterfinals and took our first loss of the season, which knocked us into the losers bracket.  Luckily there we only had to win one there to get to the cross-over.  There we played team St. Louis and won in two games.  This would set us up for a rematch against the home team (Chicago) we'd lost to earlier.

This match was a battle.  We had a handful of fans while Team Chicago had most of the beach behind him.  :)  Kim and I won the first, they won the second, and in the deciding game we won 15-10.  It was a great test for Kim and I to work together and bounce back from our previous match against them.  We played point by point and stayed very focused on our goal.  The best thing about it is that we broke the record for team tournament wins in a season with SIX.  This exciting feat makes me very grateful for my partnership with Kim.  Playing with her the past three seasons has made me so much better as a player and a person.

We're hoping that we can add to that record this weekend, as we head to Middleton, RI. It seems to get tougher every tournament, but we'll keep working together to make it happen!

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