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Sparked by a 9.95 on vault from Brandie Jay, the No. 7 Georgia Gymdogs defeated Missouri 195.800-195.225 on Friday night in their Southeastern Conference opener in Stegeman Coliseum. The Gymdogs improve to 1-1 (1-0 SEC), while the Tigers fall to 2-1 (0-1 SEC).
“It was a better performance,” head coach Danna Durante said. “Vault was significantly better, and there’s so much more room to improve. Floor was also significantly better. There were some great things tonight and some things to improve on.”
The Gymdogs opened with a 49.200 on vault led by Jay’s 9.95 in the closing spot. Jay’s vault score was the highest of the night for either team, marking the second consecutive meet that she has notched the highest event score. The Tigers posted a score of 48.650 on bars.
Chelsea Davis anchored the Gymdogs’ bar performance with a 9.9, the highest bars score of the meet. After two rotations, Georgia led the Tigers 98.175-97.600.
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On beam, Ashlyn Broussard posted a career-high score of 9.875. Mary Beth Box added a 9.85 to give the Gymdogs a 146.650-146.300 advantage going into the final rotation.
Georgia pulled away on floor with four gymnasts scoring above a 9.8. Box led the Gymdogs with a 9.875, Vivi Babalis and Jay each tallied a 9.85 and Sarah Persinger scored a 9.825. The Tigers closed the night with a 48.925 on beam.
“We were determined after Michigan to come back and work harder,” Jay said. “We knew we could do better. We wanted to show the fans that we could do better. So we got to the gym and we worked on all of the problem areas that we had. We were fired up this week and our main focus was to have fun. We did that and we had an awesome meet.”
Missouri’s Shauna Miller won the all-around with a score of 39.200. Persinger competed in the all-around for the Georgia and finished with a 38.500. This marked the third all-around performance of Persinger’s career, the first two coming during her freshman season in 2012.
The Gymdogs will face a quick turn-around as they head west for a meet against No. 17 Denver on Monday at 4 p.m. ET. They will return home to Stegeman Coliseum on Saturday, Jan. 24 to face Kentucky at 4 p.m. ET.
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Team Results
1. Georgia – 195.800 (VT- 49.200, UB- 48.975, BB- 48.475, FX- 49.150)
2. Missouri – 195.225 (VT- 48.950, UB- 48.650, BB- 48.925, FX- 48.700)
Vault
Sarah Persinger – 9.825, Natalie Vaculik – 9.775, Beth Roberts – 9.825, GiGi Marino – 9.800, Ashlyn Broussard – 9.800, Brandie Jay – 9.950
Bars
Sarah Persinger – 9.725, Natalie Vaculik – 9.800, Rachel Schick – 9.750, Brandie Jay – 9.075, Kiera Brown – 9.800, Chelsea Davis – 9.900
Beam
Mary Beth Box – 9.850, Natalie Vaculik – 9.675, Sarah Persinger – 9.125, Ashlyn Broussard – 9.875, Vivi Babalis – 9.800, Kiera Brown – 9.275
Floor
Kiera Brown – 9.750, Sarah Persinger – 9.825, Mary Beth Box – 9.875, Ashlyn Broussard – 9.725, Vivi Babalis – 9.850, Brandie Jay – 9.850