In sports, teams rarely get any real benefit from a loss.
Coaches and players may talk about the lessons learned from a defeat or the motivation that came from playing a close game with a team that was favored to win big, but losses still carry a negative connotation.
Unless you are Auburn gymnastics head coach Jeff Graba.
On Valentine's Day, rival powerhouse Alabama entered Auburn Arena with its impressive No. 5 national ranking and left with its 108th consecutive victory against the Tigers' gymnastics team.
But even though Auburn failed to record its first win against Alabama since the dawn of NCAA-sanctioned gymnastics, Graba was pleased with his team's performance in the 197.5-197.1 loss to the Crimson Tide.
"Actually, it was about as good as we could do," Graba said after the first Iron Meet of the season. "We were hitting our landings and getting really sharp on some stuff. I was pretty impressed."
Alabama's 197.5 tied its second-best overall score for the season against Auburn.
The Tide had the same score against fellow SEC power Georgia, who only scored a 196.825.
"We pushed Alabama to be at their best to beat us," Graba said. "They did it, but we were pretty darn good, too."
The Tigers set season-high scores in two separate events: uneven bars and balance beam. Auburn's individual gymnasts set or tied 11 different personal records during the meet.
Caitlin Walker, who posted a 9.90 on the uneven bars to help shrink Alabama's lead to .025 after the second rotation, said she would rather have a great performance in a loss than a win against anything less than the Crimson Tide's best efforts.
"I wouldn't want to see any of their gymnasts fall just to see us win, especially if we have to compare ourselves to that lower score," Walker said. "In reality, this is how it's going to be if we go up against them in regionals and nationals.
"Both schools have really great gymnastics teams, and we saw that tonight."
The biggest negative Graba took away from the loss had nothing to do with Auburn's final score or any individual event.
In the final performance of the evening, junior Bri Guy suffered a serious injury during her first run on the floor exercise, which has been her best event throughout the 2014 season.
According to Graba and Walker, Guy rolled her ankle before taking off on a back handspring.
She was not able to get enough amplitude on the move, causing her to crash headfirst on the mat.
Auburn Arena fell silent for several minutes as team physicians checked out Guy, who left the meet on a stretcher.
"It put a damper on a really good night, and it's a concern of everybody here, obviously," Graba said.
Graba confirmed Saturday morning via Twitter that Guy had suffered a season-ending ankle injury.
Even with Guy's fall at the end, Auburn lost by less than half a point to a top-5 program.
Graba took confidence in his team's final score, saying he knew some fans would be disappointed by losing once again to the powerful Crimson Tide.
"I don't look at streaks or anything like that," Graba said. "I look at it like we were ranked 12th, and they were ranked fifth. If we have Bri at the end, I think we're within a couple tenths of them. I think that says a lot about this team.
"I think this says we're under-ranked. Yeah, we didn't upend No. 5, but we take a lot of confidence from it."
The Tigers received the bump in overall ranking Graba wanted thanks to their performance against Alabama.
Because NCAA rankings are based on average team score instead of overall record, Auburn returned to the Top 10 at the beginning of the following week.
Another welcome increase in numbers for Auburn came in the attendance for its first home Iron Meet since 2012.
A crowd of 7,123 watched the two rivals battle it out and became the second-highest home attendance in Auburn gymnastics history.
"It's amazing to see so many people here," Walker said. "I mean, this is gymnastics -- who thinks about that? It's like we're kids on the playground, but people wanted to come see it. We're all eventually going to be done with gymnastics, and there's never going to be over 7,000 people cheering for you and wanting you to succeed."
Walker and her teammates are hoping for a similar home atmosphere Friday, Feb. 21, when they host another Top-10 SEC opponent.
The No. 6 Georgia Gym Dawgs will enter Auburn with an extra week off after their home meet against Missouri was canceled due to severe winter weather.
While Georgia will arrive on the Plains with extra rest, Graba is confident in his Auburn team coming off the performance against Alabama.
"I thought that we did well in all four events," Graba said. "I think we did a good job in staying consistent with our lineups all night long.
"The only concern next week is that we might have to plug in four new routines, and hopefully we utilize what we've done in the last five weeks of getting people ready."
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