No. 10 Alabama Opens Home Schedule with No. 9 Kentucky Friday in Coleman Coliseum

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – After opening the 2022 season with back-to-back road meets against teams ranked in the top-three nationally, No. 10 Alabama opens its home slate Friday at 6:30 p.m. CT in Coleman Coliseum against No. 9 Kentucky.

Tickets are available through the Alabama Tickets Office (205.348.2262) located in the lobby of Coleman Coliseum, and online at RollTide.com. Masks are strongly encouraged. The meet will air live on the SEC Network with Samantha Peszek and Alex Perlman calling the action.

Head Coach Dana Duckworth Said

"This team is hungry for more and they really do want to maximize their potential. There's an energy within this team that's extra special and they have not even seen their best. That's what is driving them forward, moving forward and looking for their next step. We are certainly excited to be starting our home stretch in Coleman Coliseum because there's nothing like competing in front of your home crowd."

Friday's Meet

Alabama opens its home schedule Friday, Jan. 21 at 6:30 p.m. CT
The meet will air on the SEC Network with Alex Perlman and Samantha Peszek
Friday's meet marks the first of five home contests and the third meet of the season for the Crimson Tide
This Friday's Alabama-Kentucky match-up marks the latest that the Tide has opened its home schedule since 2003, when UA's first four meets were on the road, pushing the first home meet to January 31 against Michigan
Alabama and Kentucky met twice during the 2021 regular season, with the Tide winning both meetings, including last year's home opener
Alabama has a season high of 196.925, which came last weekend in Gainesville, Fla., while the Wildcats opened its season last weekend at home against Ball State with a 196.525

Championship Anniversaries

In addition to serving as its home opener, Alabama's meet against Kentucky on Friday, Jan. 21 serves as Alumni Weekend with the Crimson Tide will be celebrating a pair of championship anniversaries, including the 20th anniversary of the 2002 NCAA Championship and the 10th anniversary of the 2012 NCAA title
In a scenario that feels familiar, Alabama went into the final rotation of the 2012 NCAA Championships within .025 of the Florida Gators, with one team headed to the balance beam and the other to the floor exercise
Unlike the year before, when Alabama finished off its fifth NCAA title on the floor exercise to beat a UCLA team that finished out on the balance beam, this time it was the Crimson Tide headed to the beam and instead of leading by .025, as it had in 2011, Alabama trailed Florida by the smallest margin possible
The final outcome was the same though, as Alabama posted a 49.5 to beat the Gators by .075 and third-place UCLA by a tenth of a point, the smallest margin between first and third in NCAA history
It marks the first time that Alabama won back-to-back national titles
The Tide's victory was assured by redshirt junior Ashley Priess, who scored a 9.95 in the final routine of the championship
It was a fitting finish for the Wheaton, Ill., native who was sidelined during Alabama's 2011 championship run following surgery on both ankles
A total of eight Tide gymnasts – Geralen Stack-Eaton, Ashley Priess, juniors Marissa Gutierrez and Ashley Sledge, sophomores Kim Jacob, Diandra Milliner and Sarah DeMeo and freshman Kayla Williams – earn 16 All-America honors in 2012
Senior Rachel Terry, junior Becca Alexin, sophomores Olivia Carisella, Ria Domier, Lindsey Fowler and Hannah Toussaint and freshmen Kaitlyn Clark, Hunter Dennis, Lora Leigh Frost and Brooke Parker rounded out Alabama's championship roster
Alabama rolled to the 2002 NCAA Championship on April 19, 2002, in Coleman Coliseum with a spectacular performance on all four events, especially the balance beam, where the Tide finished off the meet (and all the other teams) for the fourth outing in a row
Senior Andreé Pickens posted the night's top all-around score and earned five All-America honors in leading the Tide to its fourth NCAA Championship and third inside Coleman Coliseum
In all, Alabama earned a meet-high 14 All-America honors in 2002 with sophomore Jeana Rice earning three, junior Kristin Sterner and sophomore Alexis Brion taking two a piece while senior Natalie Barrington and freshman Shannon Hrozek earned one each
Seniors Alexa Martinez, Whitney Morgan and Raegan Tomasek, junior Sara Scarborough, sophomores Helen Burgin, Tiffany Byrd, Erin Holdefer, Lauren Holdefer and Stephanie Kite and freshman Michelle Reeser rounded out the championship roster

Last Time Out

Alabama took then-No.2 Florida down to the final competitor on Sunday in front of a sold-out arena and a national ABC broadcast
The meet was the first regular-season collegiate meet to air on a broadcast network in gymnastics history and drew 624,000 viewers, making it the second most-watched college gymnastics meet since 2011
The Gators needed back-to-back 10.0's in their last two routines of the meet to slip past the Crimson Tide, 197.000-196.925
Luisa Blanco scored a 9.950 on the balance beam in the Tide's last routine to put the pressure on the Gators
Blanco won the balance beam (9.95) and tied for first with Makarri Doggette (9.925) on the uneven bars
Alabama outscored the Gators on the uneven bars (49.350-48.975) and the balance beam (49.150-49.100)
After using nine gymnasts in the season opener at Oklahoma, the Tide used 12 against Florida
Freshman Lilly Hudson made her Alabama debut against the Gators, competing on the vault (9.750), beam (9.875) and floor exercise (9.850)
Seniors Sania Mitchell (FX), Kaylee Quinn (V) and Shallon Olsen (V, BB, FX) all made their 2022 debuts in Gainesville

Up Next

After opening its 2022 home slate with Kentucky, Alabama returns to the road, traveling down the interstate for its match-up with Auburn in Auburn Arena on Friday, Jan. 28 at 8 p.m. CT on ESPN2
It will be the Crimson Tide's third road meet of the season and third consecutive SEC contest

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