‘Eliminate all of the doubt’: Insights and takeaways from Auburn’s regular-season finale — and the Tigers’ mentality going into SECs
Alex Irvine amazed again, Paige Zancan stuck her sensational vault, and Marissa Neal is peaking at the right time on floor. It's elsewhere that Auburn will try to gain tenths from Friday's 196.700.
Alex Irvine dazzled at the end of Auburn’s bars rotation again, this time earning a 9.950 in the Tigers’ last home meet of the year against Missouri. Irvine has, at times this year, all but held the bars lineup together by a thread. The much-maligned Auburn’s bars group has been through some rough waters during the season — but Irvine has more often than not shined bright in the anchor spot, even when things had gone wonky in front of her in the lineup.
But Irvine is still a firm believer that her teammates can perform at her same level, and that Auburn can finally get its bars rotation firing on all cylinders now when it matters most, with the SEC Championship meet ahead to be followed by NCAA Regionals — and for her, it’s all between the Tigers’ ears.
“I think if we could eliminate all of the doubt, we would be perfectly fine,” Irvine said after Friday’s meet. “In practice, everyone has the ability to go up and do a hit. And I think we just turn our brains on a little bit too much going into it. But if we could just relax and swing and go into it with an attack and, like, no doubt, and just attack, I think we can put it together.”
Auburn scored a 196.700 in the meet to fall short in the head-to-head to Missouri and its 197.325. Auburn head coach Jeff Graba said he saw a team out on the competition floor that probably put a bit too much pressure on itself in the meet. And so, Auburn is still looking to put it all together in every facet: With one to many struggles before her, Auburn ended up with a ho-hum 49.150 on bars despite Irvine’s 9.950, and a couple of uncharacteristic miscues on beam stopped Auburn from nearing the 197 threshold again.
That’s been the story for Auburn as it has improved throughout late February and early March: Flashes of being a truly dangerous team in postseason if one or two other things could just line up — and that’s where Auburn stands now, still trying to get it all lined up.
“We’ve had some really good runs and gotten close to putting all four events together,” Graba said. “We need to do that at SECs, because the very next meet, it’s all-or-nothing at that point.”
He added: “For me, personally, it’s pretty obvious what we need to do. I think Alex is right: At some point, we just need to eliminate doubt and just go play the game.”
Here’s a rewind of how that went Friday night: