The Auburn Tigers Gymnastics team fell to the University of Georgia Gymnastics squad by a score of 196.650-194.975 in front of a packed house at Georgia's Stegman Coliseum.
The Tigers had solid individual efforts from sophomore gymnast Toi Garcia's floor exercise and junior Justine Foster's vault.
Led by first year Auburn head coach Jeff Graba, the Tigers are now 1-2 overall and 1-1 in the conference.
The Lady Tigers will hit the mats next against Arkansas Jan. 28.
"It was good for us because it really tested us," Graba said. "Georgia had a great team and will be one of the regional hosts for the NCAA Tournament. I told the girls that if we could perform in front of this type of crowd on the road early in the season that we can come back and build off this in the postseason."
Georgia recently had their 34-consecutive home win streak snapped by the Utah Utes, Graba's former squad.
Foster earned her highest score of the year on vault with a 9.8.
In bars, junior Alyson Sandusky scored a 9.85 to help give the Tigers a victory in that portion of the program.
During the floor exercises, Garcia turned in a stellar 9.875 along with fellow teammate, senior Rachel Innis.
This gave to give Auburn an overall score of 48.9 in the final section of the competition and a final score of 194.975.
Preparing for the Arkansas meet next week, Foster and Garcia both agreed the team has to build off this performance against a great Georgia squad to hope for better results as the season progresses.
"We have to keep together as a team," Garcia said. "We have to hit our 24 for 24s and just keep the whole team working hard in practice."
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