Gymnastics Closes Regular Season Friday at Auburn
3/15/2007 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ?? After spending nearly a month at home, the No. 3 ranked Alabama Gymnastics team takes to the road this weekend as it closes out its regular season at No. 13 Auburn Friday at 7 p.m. in Beard-Eaves Coliseum.
Friday will mark the teams' second meeting of the season with the first meeting coming in late January when Alabama scored a season high 197.475 to beat the Tigers in Tuscaloosa, pushing its win streak against Auburn to 90. Despite past dominance, Alabama head coach Sarah Patterson knows that her squad can't take the Tiger lightly.
"As I told our athletes, it doesn't matter that you're the more talented team," Patterson said. "You have to perform on that given night. We can't go down there and have an off night."
Since the two teams last met, Alabama has posted three more 197 scores, including a 197.225 last weekend against UCLA. The Tide is looking for a good road meet to close out the regular season and solidify its regional qualifying score which a mixture of road and home scores.
As always, the meet will be broadcast live on WVUA-FM 90.7 with Chad Anderson and Leesa Davis calling the action. For those outside WVUA's listening area, the meet will also be broadcast on the web at www.thecapstone.ua.edu.
Coming into this weekend's final dual meet, Alabama should have all four of its all-arounders available for duty. Junior Terin Humphrey, who competed on just the uneven bars last weekend after struggling with flu-like symptoms all week, should be available for more this week.
Freshman Kassi Price went all-around against UCLA for the first time since the season's third meet. She had been nursing a stress reaction in her leg through the middle of the season and then battled illness two weeks ago.
Freshman Morgan Dennis, the Tide's top vaulter and floor exercise worker, led the Tide in the all-around the last two weeks and comes into the Auburn meet having posted back-to-back 39.4-plus marks in the all-around. Freshman Ricki Lebegern has been extremely consistent in the all-around over the second half of the season, posting five consecutive scores of 39.350 or better coming into this meet, which is why she finds herself ranked in the top-20 nationally in the all-around.
The Tigers are led by junior Julie Dwyer who is ranked third in the all-around this week and is the defending Southeastern Conference Gymnast of the Year. Auburn is ranked in the top-10 on the balance beam, coming in at No. 6, and the vault, where they are ninth.
