The No. 4 Auburn Tigers (5-4; 2-3 SEC) suffered their fourth consecutive loss to the No. 6 Georgia Bulldogs (5-4; 2-2) on Saturday, losing 11-7.
The previous week, Auburn received its first loss of 2024 to No. 5 South Carolina, losing 11-9. So this road trip to Bishop, Georgia, was a golden opportunity for the Tigers to change the tide, but the Bulldogs took an early lead and never looked back.
“I’m really proud of the effort today,” said head coach Jessica Braswell. “The result wasn’t what we wanted, but I saw improvement in some areas from last week. We will get back to work and are looking forward to finally being back at home.”
The meet started with reining and flat, which the Dawgs ended up leading 6-3 by half.
Georgia dominated flat, going 4-1. Catalina Peralta scored the highest in the event with 90, with Isabella David and Sophia Pilla followed with 87. Ava Stearns was the only Tiger to secure her point 80-74.
Reining ended in a tie, with both teams earning two points each. Isabella Tesmer’s 71-70.5 and Olivia Marino’s 70.5-70 wins kept the Tigers close to the Bulldogs at the half.
Instead of Auburn gaining momentum, Georgia saw its opportunity to pull away with horsemanship and fences left to play.
The Bulldogs took fences in a 3-1 battle, extending their lead 9-4. Sophee Steckbeck gave Auburn its only point with an 83-78 win for her ninth consecutive win in fences. Peralta matched her flat score (90-86) as she battled against Mary-Grace Segars.
With one final event, the Tigers needed to sweep horsemanship to tie the score, but Auburn only scored three, just falling short.
Caroline Fredenburg (74.5-73), Brooke Jolstad (75-71.5) and Sydney Swallom (74.5-71) secured their points. But Jillian Stopperich and Leah Anderson’s points solidified Georgia’s win.
Jolstad’s performance in horsemanship and Stearns’ performance in flat earned them the Most Outstanding Performer achievement.
The Tigers return to the Plains for their next matchup against Dartmouth on Friday, Feb. 16, at 3 p.m. CST.
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Caitlyn Griffin is a sophomore from Huntsville, Alabama, majoring in journalism. She started with The Plainsman in fall 2022.
Twitter: @caitlyngrif99
