By: Elliot Miller
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – No. 6 Alabama suffered their first loss of the season to No. 3 Kentucky at home, losing 197.600-196.975.
On a night that looked promising through the halfway point of the meet, the Crimson Tide’s third rotation on the balance beam proved to be their undoing, as Kentucky was able to grow their lead and never look back.
Kentucky’s Raena Worley dominated the individual performances, as she walked away with not only the best all-around score of 39.750 but took the individual honors of having the best scores of 9.950 on bars, 9.950 on beam, and a perfect 10.000 on floor which is her second career 10.000 in back-to-back weeks. On the flip side for Alabama, Jamison Sears posted a personal best on vault of 9.900, Cam Machado had scores of 9.900 on both bars and floor, and Lilly Hudson posted a score of 9.900 on floor. Despite these excellent individual performances, they were ultimately overshadowed by the mistakes of the other gymnasts.
“Collectively, we had too many people that were a little bit off their game and not quite clicking together,” said Alabama Head Coach Ashley Johnston.
Only down 98.650-98.475 heading into the third rotation, Alabama’s Gabby Gladieux, Mati Waligora, and Ella Burgess all posted a score of 9.875 to begin mounting the comeback, but missteps by the last 3 gymnasts in the rotation seemed to energize the Wildcats as they capitalized off the errors by countering with scores of 9.900, 9.900, and 10.000.
“I think it’s a great learning experience for everybody,” said Makarri Doggette. “We can only go up from here.”
Never discouraged, the Crimson Tide bested their seasonal average as a team on floor with a score of 49.400 in this event compared to their average of 49.363. Smiling through the face of adversity during the fourth rotation, 3 Alabama gymnasts scored above 9.900 to end the meet on a positive note.
“We just got to keep the energy high, because carrying energy from one event to the next is obviously going to help you finish better,” said Gladieux.
Entering the day as being one of two teams unbeaten in conference play, Alabama will not exit that throne alone, as LSU unseated Arkansas, the other unbeaten SEC team. With performances to learn and grow from, Alabama is still very much in the thick of the SEC race, as they are up against three conference rivals in the next four weeks that were the three lowest ranked teams in the SEC based on conference record as of Week 4.
Alabama will look to get back in the win column as they square off against Auburn on Friday, February 9 in a classic rivalry that will be televised on the SEC Network.
