Coming off of three exhausting road meets, which featured two ice storms and trips to Baton Rouge, Fayetteville and Colorado Springs, the No. 10 gymnastics team is ready to finally be home and looking to snap Alabama’s 106-meet winning streak this Friday night, Feb. 14, in the Auburn Arena.
“Not only is it better that the girls get back and get to rest up, we’re exhausted, we’re beat up,” head coach Jeff Graba said. “They get to sleep in their own beds. But it’s also we get to be in front of our fans, that’s a lot of energy that these people bring.”
The Auburn-Alabama rivalry is not only in full-swing nowadays with football. The Iron Bowl of gymnastics this Friday in Auburn will pull fans from both fan bases.
“[The home crowd] has a huge impact,” Graba said. “That’s why Alabama is bussing fans down. They’re trying to make this their home field advantage. “So, we need the student section to show up because it’s a huge rivalry for us, and we draw a lot of energy off of the fan base.”
As they prepare, the team is doing their best to focus on only what they can control, but is not ignoring the importance of a meet like this against a top-five team, which happens to be their rival.
“Not only is it just Alabama, it’s also that they’re a multi-time national champion and sort of a juggernaut in gymnastics,” Graba said. “It’s a huge opportunity for our program to prove to the rest of the country that we’re competitive with a top five program.”
On a relatively young team with many freshmen having an impact on the final scores, the upperclassmen have guided them on how to handle the pressure that comes with a meet of this magnitude.
“The nice thing is, going to LSU and Arkansas on the road,” Graba said. “I think our freshmen are now starting to listen to our upperclassmen because they were able to say what kind of environment that’s going to be and how aggressive it can be on the road.”
Luckily for the freshmen, their first Alabama meet of their careers will be at home, and they will not have to deal with the Tuscaloosa road environment until later in the season.
Not only does having a home meet help with drawing more fans than the visiting team, it also helps Auburn with the event rotation.
“That’s the advantage of being at home, the away team has to finish on beam in a hostile environment,” Graba said. “It’d be good if our fan base was there and loud and aggressive.”
Graba said the meet could be decided during the final rotation of the night and is confident this team will be able to handle the pressure.
“To me, the identity of this team seems to rise to the occasion, so I’m expecting us to be really good this Friday,” Graba said.
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