University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels Seek EAGL Title
March 16, 2017 | Women's Gymnastics
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - North Carolina will compete in the East Atlantic Gymnastics League championships Saturday at Reynolds Coliseum on the campus of NC State University at 2 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online or at the ticket window on Saturday.
The Tar Heels are seeking their first conference title since 2011. Carolina will face stiff competition from EAGL members George Washington, New Hampshire, NC State, Pittsburgh and Towson. UNC enters the meet ranked 33rd nationally and third among EAGL participants.
“We're very excited about the opportunity we have this weekend," said head coach Derek Galvin. "Our team has come off a good weekend at UCLA and our energy and enthusiasm has been high this week. We like where we are right now in terms of the way the team has been performing and I think we're in a good position heading into the postseason."
Carolina will be competing for the second time this season at Reynolds Coliseum. Earlier this year, in a quad meet on Feb. 10, the Tar Heels scored a 195.675 en route to wins over NC State, Pittsburgh and William & Mary.
"The fact that we competed at this venue earlier and had reasonable success is a good feeling," said Galvin. "It's also nice not having to travel and it's good to be closer to home. We'll have a lot of fans in the building and that will help."
Carolina will start on a bye, and then start the meet on uneven bars. That particular event has been a source of problems for the Tar Heels and Galvin knows the team must start strong to contend for EAGL honors.
"The last two meets in which we've started on bars, we did not have a stellar performance as a team," he explains. "We need to get off to a good start on bars and we've focused on that this week in practice. We'll know after bars if we have a real chance to win the meet."
Last week at UCLA, Carolina recovered from a sub-par bars performance to score a 49.000-or-higher on the other three events. The Tar Heels will move from bars to balance beam, where UNC is ranked 22nd nationally. After balance beam, UNC will rotate to floor exercise and finish with vault. Against the Bruins last Sunday, Carolina scored its highest vault total in more than eight years.
Saturday's meet will most likely impact NCAA seeding. The top 36 teams in the country, based on Regional Qualifying Score (RQS), advance to the NCAA regionals. Carolina enters the EAGL Championships 33rd and will need to perform at a high level to ensure an NCAA bid.
During the conference meet, the EAGL will announce its award winners, including Gymnast of the Year, Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Coach of the Year and Freshman of the Year, among others.
