Huskers suffer close loss at Michigan
The No. 7 Nebraska women’s gymnastics team faced off against No. 4 Michigan in a key conference battle Saturday in Ann Arbor. Husker women hoped for top performances to score a road victory but it was not to be. Nebraska loses a close match to Michigan 197.300 to 195.875.
Lineups this afternoon against Michigan! The Big Red will be starting on bars: pic.twitter.com/3vBeFSFbuZ
— Nebraska Women's Gym (@HuskerWGym) January 31, 2015
Key performers for the Huskers were All-Americans Hollie Blanske and Jessie DeZiel. Blanske scored 9.80’s or higher in all four events to earn a 39.375 All-Around score. DeZiel’s two 9.80 scores or higher on beam and floor, plus the Huskers highest vault score of 9.9 placed her a close second behind Blanske with an All-Around score of 39.275. However, those scores were only good enough to place fourth and fifth in the All-Around competition.
Nebraska began the meet on bars where Hollie Blanske had the high score with 9.825, followed by Jennie Laeng (9.80), and Ashley Lambert (9.775). Danielle Breen and Grace Williams added their scores of 9.75 to total 48.90.
Michigan opened the competition on vault. Strong performances lead by Sugiyama with a 9.950 combined with a 9.825 from both Brown and Chiarelli helped the Lady Wolverines to a score of 49.30. At the end of the first rotation, Michigan held a slim lead over Nebraska. This would be the story of the meet as Nebraska NEVER led in the scoring.
Big Red is currently the No. 1 ranked vault team in the country and showed it. They scored 49.325, led by Jessie DeZiel with a 9.90. The vault was the only event that Nebraska won.
Michigan would go on to score 49.2 on the bars led by Nicole Artz (9.875) with the top score of the meet in that event. Total scores of 49.275 on the beam and 49.525 on the floor exercise would secure the victory for Michigan. All-Sround honors went to a trio of Michigan women. Nicole Artz (39.6) placed first followed by Sugiyama (39.5) and Brown (39.45).
In past interviews, Nebraska Coach Dan Kendig set a goal of earning a combined score of 49 points for each event. Huskers failed to do that in both the beam and the bars events. Michigan scored over 49 points on all four events plus winning the all-around. They were picked pre-season to win the Big 10 conference with Nebraska picked second. This meet illustrated those rankings.
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Huskers will return home to the Devaney next Saturday, Feb. 7 to host the Iowa Hawkeyes in a conference dual. The meet is scheduled to begin at 6 pm CST. This is also the annual Pink meet to support breast cancer awareness. The team hopes to see a big attendance wearing in pink.
Stayed tuned for further updates and as always, GO BIG RED!!!