UNC Falls to Alabama But Maintains Success on Floor

Friday, March 2

Tuscaloosa, Ala.

8:30 p.m.

North Carolina

194.975

197.525

Alabama

Morgan Lane tied career-best 39.400 in the all-around

Senior Morgan Lane matched her personal best in the all-around competition, hitting 39.400 for the second time in her collegiate career.

Photo by: Amelia Barton, Alabama Athletics

March 2, 2018 | Women's Gymnastics

Complete Results

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The Tar Heels returned to competition and took home second-place accolades against the No. 6 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide, falling 194.975 to 197.525.

"Bars was not at all what were expecting and certainly not what we wanted," said UNC head coach Derek Galvin. "Disappointing because we had the opportunity to score above the 195.000 very easily, but with the broken bar routines and counting a fall on beam, we had to rely on vault and floor to get the bulk of the scores."

After illness shook up Carolina's usual bars lineup, the Heels pushed through the first rotation on the uneven bars and earned a total of 47.875. Senior Morgan Lane led the event with her sixth-place score of 9.825. Kaitlynn Hedelund finished eighth with a score of 9.750, and Mekyllah Williams, Raine Gordon, and Madison Nettles added scores of 9.600, 9.500, and 9.200, respectively.

Heading over to vault, UNC broke the 49.000 mark for the fifth consecutive meet and compiled a score of 49.150. In an interesting group of results, two Alabama gymnasts and one Carolina gymnast tied for first-, fourth- and seventh-place honors in three three-way draws. Khazia Hislop's score of 9.875 earned her a spot in a three-way tie for first-place accolades with Alabama's Shea Mahoney and Ari Guerra. Madison Nettles followed in her own three-way tie with a fourth-place score of 9.850, and Alexis Allen found herself in the third three-way tie with a seventh-place and matched season-high score of 9.825. Mikayla Robinson matched her personal best on vault and tied teammate Madison Hargrave with scores of 9.800, and Morgan Lane earned a 9.775 for her vault.

For the third straight meet, North Carolina scored at least 49.400 in their rotation on floor exercise. Though two Alabama gymnasts snagged first-place scores of 9.925, the Tar Heels earned the four next best scores of the event. Just missing first by 0.025, Morgan Lane and Khazia Hislop tied for third with scores of 9.900, and Madison Hargrave and Mikayala Robinson tied each other again with scores of 9.875, a career record for Hargrave. Topping off Carolina's score, Madison Nettles' 9.850 finished in a four-way tie for seventh-place honors, and Lily Dean earned a score of 9.800 for her performance.

The Heels finished the fourth rotation with a total beam score of 48.550. This time in a three-way tie for second, Morgan Lane and Khazia Hislop earned equal scores of 9.900. Raine Gordon matched her career-high score to tie teammate Alexis Allen to finish in a four-way tie with scores of 9.825, and Kaitlynn Hedelund added 9.100 to the event total.

Though she took second in the competition, Morgan Lane improved her personal record this season and tied her career-best all-around performance with a 39.400. Lane's scores included 9.825 on bars, 9.775 on vault, 9.900 on floor, and 9.900 on beam. The senior's performance marks the second time in her career breaking 39.400 and the first time since the 2016 EAGL Championship.

Despite the team loss, Coach Galvin believes his team has the chance to learn from their shortcomings in the Alabama meet.

"The atmosphere was fantastic," said Galvin. "It was a crowd, it was really an exciting atmosphere, and that may have been part of what happened on bars. I'm not sure because Madison Nettles is pretty consistent and Mekyllah [Williams] has been looking great in practice so both of them made mistakes that we just weren't expecting to see. It could have been the atmosphere. They were trying to go big, but we have to do a better job at focusing mentally on bars."

In their last road competition of the regular season, North Carolina gymnastics heads west to face Arizona, San Jose State, and Air Force in Tuscon, Ariz. on Friday, March 9th at 8:30 p.m. EST.