No. 7 Auburn returned home Friday night and beat No. 14 Georgia 197.550-196.075 in a dominating display by the Tigers.
After head coach Jeff Graba decided to rest the starters last week, Suni Lee made her return tonight. With that return, she had a career high on vault landing a 9.950. She also won the all-around.
This is the fourth time this season that the Tigers have hit the 197.500 mark.
“That feels amazing even though we know we have more in the tank,” said Derrian Gobourne.
Gobourne scored two 9.95s and a 9.90 on three of her four events.
Sara Hubbard also equaled her career high by scoring 9.90 and Cassie Stevens landed a 9.875.
After the first rotation, the Tigers were up by .425.
“Our whole week we’ve been focusing on starting strong. It meant a lot to us to achieve that goal,” said Olivia Hollingsworth.
Hollingsworth led beam off with a season-high 9.875. Gabby McLaughlin had the highest score in this event landing a 9.90. She shared the event title with Georgia's Vanessa Deniz.
“In order to hit beam, you have to attack beam,” Graba said. “But you have to attack beam with a patient mentality.”
When the bars rotation came up, Lee and Gobourne anchored with solid 9.95s. Aria Brusch earned a 9.90 on her debut in bars this season.
The Tigers scored a 49.400 on bars which gave them a score of 98.850 through two rotations.
“This is phenomenal being in front of all the fans at Neville Arena. It’s once in a lifetime for a lot of these athletes. They’ll never forget this. You have to embrace that,” Graba said.
Gobourne dominated on floor — winning the event title by scoring 9.95 in her next-to-last home meet.
“This is something I’m going to take with me forever,” Gobourne said. “I’ll never forget those fans out there.”
Graba addressed the toughness of his athletes.
“My athletes are tough as nails at this point,” Graba said. “We’re ready for the postseason.”
Lee won the all-around with a 39.475 while teammates Groth (39.325) and Stevens (39.200) also competed in all four events.
“Another thing we wanted to focus on was being together. We really wanted to be together, surround each other, create a bubble and have a really good atmosphere within the team,” Hollingsworth said.
The Tigers will travel to Lexington, Kentucky, to face Kentucky on its home turf. The meet will take place on Friday, March 3rd at 6 p.m CST. This will be the last SEC matchup of the season before the SEC Championships.
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Lily has been with The Plainsman for three years and started out as a Sports Writer before becoming the Operations Editor. She graduates in May of 2024 and is from Washington, D.C.
