Alabama falls against top-ranked Georgia

TUSCALOOSA | The fourth-ranked University of Alabama gymnastics team couldn’t beat three-time defending national champion Georgia on Friday night at Coleman Coliseum, and the Gym Dogs refused to beat themselves.

The Crimson Tide had to hope for some help from No. 1 Georgia, but never got it as the Gym Dogs won 196.625 to 196 in front of an announced sellout crowd of 15,075. The loss was Alabama’s ninth in a row to its Southeastern Conference rival.

Alabama trailed by a full point going into the final rotation and needed Georgia to count one or more falls on balance beam to have a chance, but the nation’s third-ranked beam team was steady. The Tide cut slightly into Georgia’s margin with its turn on the floor exercise, but never threatened to overtake the lead.

“I think we did well considering we didn’t ever feel pressure,” Georgia coach Suzanne Yoculan said. “I wish Alabama had been a little tighter with us going into the last rotation.”

Alabama might have been more competitive if one of its top performers, senior Olympian Terin Humphrey, hadn’t sat out the competition due to illness and back soreness that has plagued her all season.

“She barely moved out there,” Tide coach Sarah Patterson said. “She’s dizzy. You can’t take a chance. Physically it just was not in her tonight.”

Alabama set the tone for an upset in the first rotation in every way but on the score sheet. The Tide sizzled on the vault with its best set of landings in at least two years, but the performance wasn’t recognized by judge Judy Schalk, who turned in a set of scores that averaged more than a tenth lower than her judging counterpart. A 9.85 by Morgan Dennis and a 9.8 from Ricki Lebegern were the Tide’s highest scores, and the teams combined to put up eight scores below 9.8 on the night.

Both head coaches lodged informal complaints on the vault scoring.

“On another night those vaults might have given us higher scores,” Patterson said.

Said Yoculan, “Alabama had the best vaulting that we’ve seen all year. That’s going against Florida, Utah, Stanford and LSU.”

The low vault scores left Alabama behind after the first rotation, with Georgia putting up a 49.425 on the uneven parallel bars while the Tide went 48.9 on vault.

Alabama got a spark on bars in the second rotation, with Dennis, Lebegern, Kayla Hoffman and late substitute Jacqueline Shealy all going 9.8 before Kassi Price topped off the rotation with a sparkling routine for a 9.95.

Patterson had sophomore Amanda Montgomery in the lineup in Humphrey’s place, but made a strategic move to go with Shealy.

“I was going for the win,” Patterson said. “We made the switch right there. I was going for every tenth I could get.”

Georgia’s low vault score of 48.9 matched Alabama’s, with the Tide cutting the Gym Dogs’ lead to less than 3/10ths at the meet’s midway point.

Georgia showed its stuff on the floor exercise with Cassidy McComb scoring 9.9 and Olympian Courtney McCool adding a 9.95, while Alabama struggled through a choppy balance beam set, counting Dennis’ 9.525 due to freshman Hoffman’s fall.

Alabama trailed by a full point, 147.65 to 146.65, going into the last rotation. Dennis went 9.95 on her floor routine to help Alabama to a 49.35 on the event, but Georgia kept its balance on the beam to hold the lead.

Patterson called the meet a measuring stick to see how far the Tide had come since failing to make last year’s Super Six finals at the NCAA Championships and how close it can come to challenging Georgia’s supremacy.

“I think we’re a little behind but I’m extremely encouraged,” she said. “We came in tonight and we really wanted to win. We’re going to move forward and be positive about this.”

Said Dennis, “Gymnastically, we’re right up there with Georgia. We’ve just got to perform better. I think we can definitely improve.”

Price won the individual all-around title with a score of 39.275, beating out Dennis’ 39.125.

Alabama will host Arkansas next Friday night in its annual pink-themed breast cancer awareness meet.

ALABAMA SCORES

Vault

Ricki Lebegern 9.8

Kaitlin White 9.7

Kassi Price 9.625

Brittany Magee 9.675

Kayla Hoffman 9.875

Morgan Dennis 9.85

Uneven Bars

Kaitlin White 9.775

Morgan Dennis 9.8

Ricki Lebegern 9.8

Kayla Hoffman 9.8

Jacqueline Shealy 9.8

Kassi Price 9.95

Balance Beam

Casey Overton 9.775

Ricki Lebegern 9.8

Kayla Hoffman 9.25

Kassi Price 9.825

Brittany Magee 9.675

Morgan Dennis 9.525

Floor Exercise

Ashley O’Neal 9.825

Kaitlin White 9.825

Ricki Lebegern 9.575

Kassi Price 9.875

Kayla Hoffman 9.875

Morgan Dennis 9.95.