Alabama and the Bengal Tigers will rumble for a second time this year next week – join us here for all the action next Friday night!

Roll Tide and goodnight from Coleman Coliseum!

Coach Patterson is being interviewed and reported that they held Ashley Sledge out tonight on vault and floor due to some excessive soreness that they certainly don’t want to exacerbate at this point in the season.  Coach praised Ashley for letting the coaches know about this – she would have preferred to be out there for the home crowd against UCLA but knew it could be trouble if she pressed her luck. She did fine on uneven bars.   Coach reports also that Marissa Gutierrez  is getting better and is already walking around in tennis shoes, albeit a little slowly.  She is hopeful that she will be back soon.

Bama saw some exciting debuts on floor tonight with freshman Lauren Beers throwing her double layout – she will need to keep working on her endurance to pull it all together but it is great to see that this routine is close to being one the coaches can count on very soon. She also had a very solid vault for a 9.85 and an exhibition on the beam for a 9.775.

Sarah DeMeo! She struggled on the bars mightily tonight (her score was thrown out) but delivered on the balance beam (9.85) and floor exercise with a new E element to open – double front Arabian for a 9.875.  Priess started the team off with a magnificent floor routine as well – 9.875 was her score and she won the balance beam with a 9.925 and added the Khorkina release into her bars routine for a 9.825 (only marred by the jammed landing forward of her double layout dismount).

UCLA had some struggles tonight but have loads of talent and will be in the hunt for the title at the end of the year – they also have the advantage of hosting nationals!

Ashley Priess – double tuck to open – 1.5 to front layout – double pike to close – excellent effort – 9.875

Lora Leigh Frost – problems on the opening double layout – chest down and check step forward – last two passes were fine – a little stumble out of her tuck double jump as well.  9.800 – seems a little high considering that opening pass was checked – we’ll need to look at it from another angle.

Sarah DeMeo – opens with a double front Arabian – nails it! No problem with the second pass of a 1.5 to front layout and she closes with a solid 2.5 twist. Sells it beautifully – Happy gal! 9.875

Kim Jacob – opens with a pike full in – solid! Nails her double pike – no movement! Finishes with a 1.5 twist to a 1/1 – super! 9.95!

Lauren Beers – beautiful double layout to open but cannot stand up the final double tuck – what a shame! 9.325

Diandra Milliner – she delivers for the Bama Nation! Great routine – especially the opening double front Arabian – super landing of this difficult  element. 9.95!

Exhibition: Carley Sims – great routine until the final pass – opens with a double tuck, 1.5 to front pike, step back, then touches down on the double pike to close - still building that endurance. Perhaps this element needs to be first in her routine to garner her some confidence. Bama really wants this routine down the road (next year) because the dance is so sassy and crowd appealing.  

UCLA on Beam:

Kaelie Baer – wolf jump to side straddle jump – side somi – falls – still smiling as the crowd claps for her to get back on – straddle 3/4 jump – bhs to lo to 1/1 twist dismount. 9.25

Lichelle Wong – switch leap to side straddle jump – front aerial to bhs – switch side straddle leap – dismounts with a 1.5 twist – hops to the side on landing. 9.775

Sophina DeJesus – solid routine – 9.850

Mattie Larson – has a few balance checks on her opening elements but settles in well with the rest of the routine – gainer back pike dismount. 9.90 -

Vanessa Zamarippa – 9.775 – bailed on a leap series and then went backwards and repeated the originally planned sequence – step on dismount.

Diandra Milliner – solid routine but not as crisp and aggressive like she was last week. Hop back on the double twist dismount. 9.85

Kaitlyn Clark – solid routine as well – one small step this week on the 1.5 twist dismount. 9.825

Kayla Williams – great routine until the loso – bends at the waist – tiny hop on the landing of her 1.5 twist. 9.825

Sarah DeMeo – great routine but has to check the double pike dismount, one step forward on landing. 9.850

Kim Jacob – great routine but takes a hop forward on her 1.5 twisting dismount. Need to stick those landings Bama!!  9.900

Ashley Priess – great routine from start to finish. 9.925

Exhibition: Lauren Beers – looking very confident so far with her difficult elements bhs to back pike (chest down a bit) ring leap, punch front tuck to beat jump - dismounts with a 1.5 twist – small step on landing, legs separated as well. 9.775

UCLA on Floor:

Dana McDonald – double pike to open – Rudi – some leg split in the air during twisting - selling her routine well – big smile throughout – Rudi to close (out of a front punch layout). 9.775

Synequa Bynum – double pike to open is solid – trouble with her second pass – jams landing and has to stumble back a bit – powerful music – double tuck to close, small check forward on landing. 9.725

Sophina DeJesus – problems on her opening and second passes (double pike, double tuck) – chest down and check steps forward on both. Final pass is fine – 1.5 to front layout. 9.600

Alyssa Pritchett – tuck full in to open – 1.5 to front layout – 9.85

Olivia Courtney – beautifiul double front Arabian to open and a solid double pike to close – cool music as well! 9.875 – way too low.

Vanessa Zamarippa – touches down on her double layout attempt – second and third passes had twisting errors as well – sloppy in fact – but her dance and presentation to the crowd were wonderful - 9.200

Ashley Sledge – rocks the routine from start to finish – Gienger release – stuck double layout – all handstands looked solid. 9.85

Becca Alexin – her best routine of the year – hit all her handstands – the shaposh and pak salto looked fine – sticks the full turn to tuck double flyaway! 9.80

Kim Jacob – huge Ray release – misses at least one handstand but not too bad – nice bail to handstand from high to low bar – sticks the double layout! 9.80

Kaitlyn Clark – 9.725 – judges hit her on the handstands – chest down on double layout landing, one step forward.

Sarah DeMeo – problems with her opening handstands and has to come off and then falls on the straddle Jaeger – sticks the double layout.  Gotta love the Bama crowd – they are pulling for her and scream loudly in appreciation for the rest of her routine. 8.65

Ashley Priess – needs to deliver with this routine – two major release moves, including a pak salto – but slings out the double layout and has to take a jarring step forward to control it. Ugh!  9.825

UCLA on Vault:

Dana McDonald – Y 1/1 – jammed landing a bit a hopped back as well. 9.800

Alyssa Pritchett – Y 1/1 – flat in the air – one step on landing – 9.725

Lichelle Wong – Y 1/1 – tiny steps out of it on landing – solid otherwise. 9.800

Kaelie Baer – Y 1/1 – solid vault for a 9.90

Olivia Courtney – Y 1/1 – chest bent at the waist – waves arms a bit to hold the landing. 9.90 – not sure how you score that vault that high with those obvious form and landing errors.

Vanessa Zamarippa – Y 1/1 – beautiful! 9.95

Kayla Williams – Y 1/1 – great vault – excellent form, chest high – one foot step on landing. 9.85

Lauren Beers – Y 1/1 – her best vault of the year – hop in place on landing – big smile! 9.85

Kim Jacob – Y 1.5 – split legs on entry – good rotation in the air – step back on landing. 9.775

Carley Sims – Y 1/1 – huge vault in the air – nice amplitude and rotation but steps back on landing – good distance as well. 9.800

Kaitlyn Clark – Y 1/1 – almost stuck it - crowd roars! 9.90

Diandra Milliner – Y 1.5 – one step back – 9.875

Exhibition: Ria Domier – Pike 1/2 – 9.725 – chest down, step on landing, jammed it a bit as well.

UCLA on Bars:

Olivia Courtney – shaposh back to hs on low bar – tuck full in dismount – excellent distance and landing. 9.80

Mattie Larson – Tkatchev – double layout – solid landing – a little slow from start to finish. 9.75

Danusia Francis – 9.75 – fast rotating routine in contrast with Larson’s – double pike dismount

Lichelle Wong – straddle Jaeger – touches down forward on her knees with her dismount. 9.075

Sophina DeJesus – excellent routine – tuck full in landed chest down but she does not move her feet. Pike toe shoot from low to high bar was a nice element. 9.85

Vanessa Zamarippa – great routine – Tkatchev, toe shoot straddle – double layout – stuck! 9.90 – she slightly went past vertical on the high bar during her final giant uprise, so they had to take off for that.

UCLA is introduced first – Sophina DeJesus, Mattie Larson, Vanessa Zamarippa, Olivia Courtney, Peng Peng Lee, Sydney Sawa, Alyssa Pritchett, Dana McDonald, Monique DelaTorre, Lichelle Wong, Danusia Francis, Kaelie Baer.  UCLA has some fans here!

Crimson Tide is introduced next – “To Be A Champion” on the jumbotrons – Tide gymnasts run out – crowd has arrived!!!!  Geralen Stack-Eaton is singing the national anthem!  Crowd roars with approval after her rendition – I hear Nashville calling!

Fashion Report! Alabama is wearing the black with contrasting houndstooth print in a ribbon pattern that circles from the upper chest around to the back, better known as the “Tornado Relief” leo from last year. UCLA is wearing navy blue with lots of winking silver sequins.

Vault: Williams, Beers, Sledge, Sims, Clark, Milliner.  Jacob will exhibit her Y 1.5

Bars: Sledge, Alexin, Jacob, Clark, DeMeo, Preiss.  Sims will exhibit.

Beam: Milliner, Clark, Williams, DeMeo, Jacob, Priess.  Beers will exhibit.

Floor: Frost, Sledge, DeMeo, Jacob, Beers, Milliner.  Sims will exhibit.

Both Alabama and UCLA want this victory tonight. They both claim 6 NCAA championships since 1988 and are two of only four teams to ever win the title.  So it is not hard for the Alabama Crimson Tide and their fans to get excited and revved up for this competition!

For Alabama to bring home the victory, they will have to replace two solid routines on vault and floor with the current loss of senior Marissa Gutierrez, who suffered a severe ankle sprain last week at Arkansas on the floor exercise but is expected to return by post-season.  Bama’s freshmen, Lauren Beers and Carley Sims, will be called upon tonight to help on vault in Marissa’s place.  Look for the rest of the team to get off some big blocks and focus on sticking their landings to put immediate pressure on UCLA.

Kim Jacob returns to the uneven bars tonight and she has a big scoring routine but must get vertical on those handstands! The rest of the team knows what they need to do – toe point, extension and stuck landings!

Alabama will stick with their balance beam line-up from the past few weeks – and it’s a super solid one.  But make no mistake, this is a meet where they have no choice but to continue to attack their routines on the balance beam – you must be aggressive to be impressive!

The floor exercise is where Bama will again have to replace Guti – Lauren Beers will be throwing her double layout opening pass and in warm-ups she looked super confident with her execution of this E element.  Priess will get things started and she must stay chest high and in bounds to get the highest score possible.  Alabama will potentially throw 5 opening E passes tonight on floor to try and secure the victory over the Bruins. 

It promises to be an exciting showcase of gymnastics, so come along for the ride Tide fans!