Some were calling it the Super Bowl of gymnastics. No. 1 Oklahoma visited a sold out PMAC to face No. 2 LSU. However, the Tigers were not thinking about who they were up against Friday night. Instead, they made the meet all about themselves.
With a tied score after the first two rotations and a season-high performance from Sierra Ballard on beam to lead off the second half, no one, not even the Sooners, was going to stop them.
LSU came out swinging on vault, earning its season high score of 49.600. But Oklahoma dominated on bars, bringing their score right back up to match the Tigers’.
“We knew there was going to be an ebb and flow,” Ballard said. “We knew that it was going to go back and forth the entire meet. We knew it was going to be tight. So, it just kind of fuels that competitiveness inside all of us and it kind of makes you want it a little bit more.”
Ballard’s beam performance earned a 9.950 which gave the Tigers the push they needed. It was that momentum that set them up for another season high performance on the floor with a 49.700.
“I think that after beam we knew that we had a solid beam rotation,” Kailin Chio said. “That’s one of our best beam rotations we’ve had all year. I think that going into floor we really just wanted to hone in on finishing out the meet. I think that we really wanted to have a complete meet and that was really what was in our mind.”
Oklahoma may have been their toughest challenge yet, but Head Coach Jay Clark wanted the girls to focus on this meet as an opportunity to grow regardless of the final score.
“I told them before the meet, I said this meet is not about another team, it’s not about the hype train,” Coach Clark said. “For me, it’s about the personalities and the energy that each one of our kids have. We’ve got a diverse team in so many ways. Tonight was about us taking the next step and coalescing and getting all that to gel and continuing to get better as a team.”
Even on Valentine’s Day, the PMAC was packed with the third largest crowd in program history. And their impact is not lost on Coach Clark and the team. The challenge now is to perform like they did Friday on the road.
The Purple and Gold will travel to Lexington to face the Kentucky Wildcats next Friday, Feb. 21. The meet begins at 6 p.m. CST.
For the first time, the Tigers will also have to face the Sooners in the SEC Championship due to the conference realignment. That date is set for March 22.
