I sure hope ya'll were at Coleman Coliseum this past Friday night, because that was certainly where all the action was. The competition between us and Florida was probably the greatest college gymnastics meet I've ever been a part of. Going into the weekend, the Gators were the third ranked team in the nation and held the highest team score at this point in the season. We knew we had to be on our "A" game to have a chance to win, but we knew that beating last year's SEC Champions was very possible.

We began the night on vault, as we do all home meets. Casey started us off with a huge yurchenko full and instantly created an excitement that escalated as the meet went on. Vault was highlighted by Kayla's stuck textbook perfect vault, which brought our crowd to its feet.

When we got to bars, we were well aware that the scoring would be tight. Several of the Florida girls executed nearly flawless routines and never exceeded a 9.85. But the judging stayed consistent as that score took top honors with Kassi matching it. Despite it being our lowest scoring event, our bar rotation was a success and Kaitlin started us off with her best bar routine of her college career. You couldn't ask for a better lead off.

We took it to beam trailing the Gators by less than two tenths, although none of us were aware of this or had any idea what the scores were like. We did an amazing job of staying within our team and focusing solely on our performance, knowing we had absolutely no control over what Florida was doing across the gym. Once again, our beam queens got into their zone, making the beam their victim and displaying an unwavering confidence. We didn't have to count a score under a 9.8, and Kassi scored a personal best of 9.9!!

At this point in the meet we still had no idea what the standings were and we didn't care. We just knew we had come off of a phenomenal beam rotation and we could pull out a win if we did our job on floor. All of our floor workers did outstanding routines, but boy did the crowd come to life when Kayla took the floor. She is one of those kids who has "it." I'm not sure what exactly "it" entails, but from the personality to talent to execution to showmanship, Kayla has that audience appeal. And that was exactly what we needed to get our fans behind us and excited! After her stunning routine, Kassi and Morgan didn't let up and delivered solid performances to help us clinch the win over Florida!

We were all so excited and almost in disbelief after the meet. We all know we are an awesome team and had the ability to beat Florida, but it's so easy to buy into the doubts that other people have for us. This win is so huge because it has finally instilled in us that belief that we belong with the other teams and we CAN and we WILL contend for a national championship! It was such a confidence booster for the remainder of the season.

This week practices are definitely emphasizing quality because we only get two days of practice before we head out west. We're all looking forward to going to California to take on UCLA and Stanford, as well as Arkansas, Nebraska and Cal-State Fullerton. It's pretty cool because a lot of teams only have one or two more meets left until post season. But we still have four! So we really have the chance to improve our scores and get better before SECs. So here we are with 7 meets behind us, and 7 to go. It's that checkpoint time and we're pleased with where we are, the progress we've made, and the potential we still have ahead of us.

I know I've said it before but I feel like it can't be said enough...The fans that make the trek to Coleman Coliseum at 7:30 on Fridays and those who sit behind their computer screens across the country following the event are the nations' best!

Ladies and gentlemen, this is...
ALABAMA GYMNASTICS!!!