It’s Mary Emma again, coming to you live from the Fitzgerald Field House for what should be an exciting EAGL matchup! Both teams will be looking to improve on their performances here and move up in the rankings.
George Washington is coming off what was an unexpected week off due to a meet cancellation, so the team is going to be looking to get back on track. The Colonials had a rocky start to the season after losing over half of their postseason routines, so it may take them some time to find their new groove.
Pittsburgh started off with a great season opener, but some struggles on the road last week in New Hampshire set the team back a notch. Most notably, the Panthers were only able to put five up on bars, indicating a possible depth problem on that event. Reigning EAGL rookie of the year Haley Brechwald is presumably still working back from an off season surgery and has been limited to vault and beam so far.
Rotation 1
Spivey (Pitt) – Stuck y full. Great way to start!
Raymond (GW) – nice jaeger, little short on bail and slight shuffle on dismount. Good start
Miller (Pitt) -nice y full with a small step
Zois (GW) – huge tkatchev, almost casts over but saves it, and stuck DLO dismount.
Herbine (Pitt) – nive y half with just a small step forward.
Cohen (GW) – nice tkatchev to start, and hop foward on dismount.
Brechwald (Pitt) – nice y full with a small hop back
Banen (GW) – big tkatchev, pack is good, and a small hop forward on dismount
Bochenek (Pitt) – good y full with a step backwards
Warhol (GW) – huge gienger to start, and step foward on FTDLO dismount. Nice to see that difficulty!
Petrikis (Pitt) – big y full with a bounce backwards.
McLaughlin (GW) – falls on jaeger gets right back up and then sticks full in dismount to end. Great fight!
After 1: Pitt 48.900; GW 48.200
Bars scoring is definitely tight. GW didn’t even break 9.7 for routines that looked better than that. Granted, I don’t have the best angle, so probably because of missed handstands. Pitt had a great vault rotation!
Rotation 2
Zois (GW) – y full with a small step foward
Bochenek (Pitt) – little close on gienger but good on bail, and great dismount. Couldn’t tell if she stuck or not.
Crasa (GW) – stuck y full! great height and distance
Miller (Pitt) – great piked jaeger and stuck (or at least close) dismount!
Vitoff (GW) – y half with a step forward. I think that may have been her first college routine? If so nice!
Collins (Pitt) – little short on first handstand, bail is good, nice tkatchev, and step on dismount.
McLaughlin (GW) – nice y full with a bounce back
Dugan (Pitt) – little close on ginger, bail is great, and stuck dismount! Great routine!
Warhol (GW) – y half with a small step.
Brett (Pitt) – huge gienger, perfect on bail, and a step on DLO dismount! Great!!
Zona (GW) – y full with a small hop
Good rotation for GW. Losing Chambliss really hurts this lineup (she’s out with an Achilles injury), but they showed a great fight! Pitt’s a little short on bars routines with only 5 competing, but all 5 hit, so yay! Pretty sure that will be their season high on bars.
Rotation 3
Miller (Pitt) – good mixed series to start, and completely misses her feet on her series and falls, good on full turn, and nearly stuck dismount. Good fight after the fall.
Kaplan (GW) – little short on double like to open, good second pass, and s good rudi to finish. Good way to start off the rotation
Brechwald (Pitt) – goof front aerial to BHS series, solid front toss, tiny hop on gainer pike dismount. Good recovery!
Karpova (GW) – good double pike to open, front lay to front full is great, and great finish.
Robatin (Pitt) – great front toss to BHS series, good save on front aerial, and small step on gainer full dismount
Zois (GW) – huge double pike to open, 2.5 is great! and great finish. That should score well!
Brett (Pitt) – solid side aerial to BHS series, great illusion turn and full turn. Great so far!! and just a small step on dismount. Great routine!
Zona (GW) – great full in to open, 1.5 to front full solid. and solid double tuck to finish.
Herbine (Pitt) – solid series to open, and solid punch front, small hop on dismount.
Crasa (GW) – good double pike to start. This music is fun. solid second pass, and great double back to finish. That should score well!
West (Pitt) – strong leaps series to start, great cover on full turn, perfect BHS LOSO series. great switch 3/4, and a small hop on dismount
Banen (GW) – good double pike to start, good 2.5 to front lay, short on double tuck but saves it.
Great floor rotation from George Washington! They struggled a bit last time out, so nice to see that. Pitt put up a great fight hitting 5 straight after a fall from the leadoff!
After 3: Pitt 146.050; GW 145.800
Rotation 4
Zois (GW) – Missed the begining, but look good so far, looks like she stuck (or nearly stuck) her dismount to end
Ceccarini (Pitt) – nice double back to open. And a string finish
I don’t have a very good view of either event, but I’ll try my best
Cohen (GW) – hit triple series, wobble on front aerial but saves it, and good dismount.
Brett (Pitt) – hits double tuck to open. hits second pass based on team reaction #CarolBirdBoxChallenge. and nice finish. Great routine!
Bray (GW) – solid so far, good on series, and stuck gainer pike dismount.
Miller (Pitt) – good double pike, lots of power. sticks double back. and nice finish!
Karpova (GW) – good series to start, leaps are solidm front aerial to split jump good. Didn’t see dismount, but a hit based on team reaction
Bochenek (Pitt) – rudi to open, leaps are great from what I could see, good double pike, I couldn’t see the last pass, but I think she went OOB? Nope, based on her score I think she stayed in.
Banen (GW) – good switch leap, good series, and I missed the end, but hit
Petrikis (Pitt) – hits double pike to start, I love this choreography! Front lay to front full is good. and great double back to close. Great routine!
Raymond (GW) – solid on leap series, solid series, good cover on side aerial. Almost Risa Perezed it. And hit dismount.
Spivey (Pitt) – nice first pass! Little short on double back but saves it, and good rudi to close. Nice routine!!
Zona (GW) exo – missed the beginning, series is solid, small hop on dismount.
Robatin (Pitt) exo – great double back to open, front lay to front full solid to end. Scored a 9.675 for that.
Herbine (Pitt) exo – I think she just added floor this year, which is great to see! Looked really short on double back, not sure if her hand went down or not, Really fun choreography, and hit last pass.
Final: Pitt: 195.175; GW: 194.625
Season high for both teams! George Washington improved on their last performance, even without Chambliss, and Pitt had a good bounce back from its struggles last week.
Post Meet Interviews
I interviewed Head Coach Samantha Snider as well as senior Brittany West after the meet. Here’s what they had to say:
West on coming back from an injury and anchoring beam: “It feels really great to be back with the team and competing again. I embrace the pressure, so I love being the anchor and having my teammates’ back.”
Snider on the team’s improvement this week: “We definitely improved from the first home meet and obviously from last weekend, and that’s what we want to do. We want to keep seeing improvement week to week. And we showed a lot of mental toughness, a lot of grit and determination tonight.
Snider on how she kept the team focused after a leadoff fall on beam: “We tell the team to have a short term memory… you forget about [the mistake] and you focus on what’s coming up next. They did a really great job of that, and I know that was something they wanted to work on from last week, having to count a fall on that event.“
Snider on the Autism Awareness meet theme and where the inspiration came from: “[Dave [Kuzara’s] friend’s son has autism, so it’s kind of something that really hits home for him and it was important to him. So, when he brought it to our attention, we jumped on board with that idea of raising awareness. We found that with autism, almost everybody is affected by it and touched by it in some way.”
Live Blog by Mary Emma Burton
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