Huff, Neal lead Auburn to claw back toward 197 with strong showing on floor
The Tigers' leaders stepped up in a big way to get Auburn to a 196.975 against Michigan State. Here's how a solid enough meet — if not a bizarrely scored meet — unfolded for Auburn.
Julianne Huff used a big floor routine in the final rotation to lift her all-around score to match her career-high, and Marissa Neal followed that up with a magnificent routine that earned a 10 from one of two judges — and Auburn used a big floor rotation at the end of the night to get to 196.975 against Michigan State on Friday in Neville Arena.
The Tigers clawed their way to as close as they could get to that 197 mark, with most of that effort coming after a couple slow rotations to start on vault and bars. On floor, Auburn posted its best score since the first meet of the season, a 49.475 which is just shy of the 49.500 they posted in the season opener against NC State, and up a massive six tenths from Auburn’s showing last week at Oklahoma.
Huff got a 9.950 in the No. 4 spot and Neal followed with her own 9.950 in the No. 5 spot — which was given a 10 from one of the two judges, but, unfortunately for Neal, was given a 9.900 by the other judge, marking one of many questionable judging discrepancies made all through the night when it came to Auburn’s scores.
Despite whatever adversity the team faced earlier in the meet, the Tigers responded by going red hot on floor and getting back closer to that 197 range. Teams that score in that range in the postseason usually make the Sweet 16 with a chance to advance to the Elite Eight at least.
Auburn team scores
Vault: 49.075
Bars: 49.125
Beam: 49.300
Floor: 49.475
Team total: 196.975
“I had a little message to the team before that last rotation. I was just like, ‘Let’s just have fun. We look a little tense,’” Huff said after the meet. “Like, ‘Let’s just loosen up.’ And that’s exactly what we did. And, I mean, floor is just really fun in Neville so it was a great time.”
Huff scored a 39.575 in the all-around, to match her career-high. But by making her voice heard as a vocal leader, there’s no quantifying how much more she helped Auburn’s score intangibly.
“For her to step up, she needed to, and I’m glad that she found her voice, because I think this team will respond,” Auburn head coach Jeff Graba said.
“We still have some issues, obviously, but I really like the fact that they’re starting to become a better team,” Graba also said. “To finish like that — we just built. I do think we started tense. I think this group is great when everything is going well when everything’s going well, and as soon as a mistake in the past has happened, they’ve tightened up, and I think they couldn’t get out of their way for the first event or two, but really settled down when we went to beam and then let it go on floor.”
It was a return to form for both Auburn’s beam and floor lineups, after their scores took an uncharacteristic dip last week at Oklahoma.
Here’s more on those judging discrepancies, and how the meet unfolded for the Tigers: