Auburn’s early struggles prove costly at LSU

"We still struggled starting out slow, but we picked it up at the end with our two best events and I'm happy with that Auburn head coach Jeff Graba said. “We need to really find our groove being on the road because we're away from home all of March and this was a good start for us."

Auburn came into the meet fresh off of its best season score in its previous meet. To compete and possibly defeat LSU on the road, Auburn would need to perform that well again.

However, it was a bumpy meet at the start. Auburn began the meet on bars and did not have a gymnast score over 9.850. The finishing score on bars was 49.100. 

The road Tigers improved their vault score in the second rotation with a 49.250 final score. Leading the charge on vault was Juliane Huff with a 9.925 and Cassie Stevens with a 9.900. Auburn improved in the second rotation, but it was not enough to keep track with LSU who built a large lead after the first two rotations. 

The good news for Auburn was the third event was floor- the rotation it is best at. Even the floor, though, was not as kind on Friday night. Yet again Auburn struggled to break out of the 9.8 range with its scores. Olivia Hollingsworth scored a 9.900, but she was the only one to score above a 9.875. Overall, Auburn finished with a 49.300 on floor. 

Despite struggling early, Auburn finished the meet strong. Its top score of the night came on beam in the final rotation. Auburn finished with a score of 49.450. The two highest scorers for Auburn were Sophia Groth and Gabby McLaughlin who each scored a 9.925. 

Auburn’s finish is something it can build on but will need to improve how it starts moving forward. Auburn will return home for its next meet and will seek to get back on track. The Tigers will take on Missouri at 6 PM next Friday inside Neville Arena. The meet will air on the SEC Network.