AUBURN, AL (EETV) - No. 12 Auburn Gymnastics defeated the No. 11 Georgia Bulldogs in a head-to-head meet on Friday Night in Neville Arena in a Military Appreciation Night matchup.
Auburn and Georgia both came into this meet with a 1-1-0 record in conference play. Both teams knew it was going to be tough to come out with a win.
Auburn Head Coach Jeff Graba said earlier in the week, “It's going to be a tight meet..I expect a close battle all the way to the end”.
The Tigers started on vault for their first rotation. Senior Sara Hubbard tied her season high with a 9.875. Fifth year senior Sydney Schumaker also scored a 9.875, making that her new season high. Senior Sarah Zois also contributed with a 9.825. The Tigers overall score for vault was 49.150, just .25 higher than the Bulldogs 49.125 for this rotation.
The second rotation for the Tigers was bars. The team totaled a 49.350 on bars, setting a new season team best. Once again this score was just .25 higher than Georgia’s 49.325 overall score on bars. The leading scorer for this rotation was Sophomore Alex Irvine who scored a 9.950, setting a new career high for her. Sophomore Emma-Grace Boyd and Senior Sophia Groth both contributed with 9.85’s.
In the next rotation the Tigers moved to beam. Throughout this season the Tigers have leaned on their strong performances on beam.
Jeff Graba stated earlier in the week “We have a good beam culture..they know they're good at the event, they have a lot of confidence, so we've been pushing each other pretty hard on that event”.
The Tigers continued their strong performance tonight, showcased by two season-high 9.9’s from Senior Sophia Groth and Sophomore Paige Zancan. Standout freshman Katelyn Jong also contributed with a 9.850.
The Tigers finished off the night with an incredibly strong performance on floor. Senior Sophia Groth continued to shine scoring a 9.950, which ultimately led the Tigers to a win. This score was another season high for Groth. Freshman Sophia Bell added to the Tigers strong performance as well, scoring a 9.925. Senior Paige Zancan and Sophomore Olivia Greaves also contributed, both scoring 9.9’s.
Overall, the Tigers performed incredibly well on floor, totalling a team score of 49.550, their best score on floor this season.
Both teams knew this would be a tough meet, given the teams close rankings. Ultimately the Tigers were able to prevail with an overall score of 197.300 to Georgia’s 197.200.
The Tigers will look to continue climbing the rankings as they will travel to take on the No. 2 Florida Gators on February 14th at 7:30 p.m. CT. This meet can be viewed on SEC Network.
