Redhawk High Scores Too Much For Cougars

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The BYU women's gymnastics team came up short Saturday against Southeast Missouri State on the road. The Cougars posted a score of 193.250 but SEMO recieved their highest marks of the season finishing with 194.600.

"I thought we did some really good things in this meet," BYU head coach Brad Cattermole said following the meet. "We had to count two falls and that's unfortunate but when that happens the rest of the team has to take a deep breath and do what they have to do. We did an okay job of that today but we have to learn to perform regardless of whether we fell previously or not."

The Cougars were led by Megan Donehue, Danielle Goldman and Natalie Eyre who each compete in three events for BYU. The best performance in the meet for the Cougars came from Goldman on floor with an 9.850.

With the Redhawks performing their best routines of the year on three of the four events, the Cougars had little room for error and were unable to return home victorious.

The floor exercise was the most successful event for BYU in the meet. Goldman led the Cougars but the entire floor lineup performed well for the Cougars and combined for a team score of 48.875. Sophomore Jennifer Lezeu continued her success on the floor from last week's meet posting a 9.825 for BYU.

Vault proved to be the second-best event of the day for the Cougars. Despite a low score for Krysten Koval in the lead-off vault, BYU was able to bounce back and drop Koval's score for a team total of 48.625.

The Cougars struggled on beam and bars with performances that proved even veteran competitors have bad days as BYU was forced to count a 9.075 from McKell Merkley on bars and a 9.050 from Kaylee Gallup on the balance beam.

"We had some unexpected things happen today," Cattermole said. "People that don't usually make mistakes did and that was hard for us to respond to but I thought we did a good job despite those errors. I'm happy with where we are and I think we will continue to improve."

BYU will travel to Logan, Utah on Friday to take on the Aggies at 7 p.m.