SEAN MEENAGHAN — Photo Editor
After a close loss to rival Yale University the day before, the Southern Owls bounced back to beat Springfield College and West Chester University in a three-team meet during their home opener
The Owls got off to a shaky start on vault but junior Rebecca Brady finished strong, scoring with a 9.75 in her first heat and a 9.80 in her second which ranked first overall.
Brady said she strives off of competing.
“When you compete your adrenaline is going,” Brady said. “I’ve been working on sticking my landings a lot which I’ve done in a previous meet and it was just great.”
Brady said she looked to improve from her meet at Yale the day before.
“My landings yesterday weren’t that good,” Brady said, “I landed low with my chest down so that’s a huge deduction and today I definitely improved and stuck my landing which minimized deductions. And that’s what you got to do.”
Brady said even with the win the team will still look to be better for the next meet.
“We won but we had a lot of mistakes,” Brady said. “The scores were low and we just need to improve on every event; there is always room for improvement and get a better team score.”
Head Coach Jerry Nelson said he wanted the girls to come out strong.
“It was about performing to the best of their capabilities, minimizing deductions and maximizing their start values,” Nelson said. “They did a nice job today and its senior day. A lot of motivation came from within today and that always makes it fun.”
While competing on the balance beam, the Owls were able to stretch their lead with the help from Senior Mallory Miller, who scored first overall with a score of 9.675
Miller said teamwork helped her score well on the balance beam.
“I really needed to work on my confidence and I think I did that today,” Miller said. “I had help from my coaches and all my teammates. They were definitely supporting me. Once I got my confidence everything went really well.”
Miller said she saw some flaws from the meet the day before that she wanted to improve on.
“There were a couple skills I had trouble with and I wanted to make sure I had my head set straight,” Miller said, “and focus on straightening those up and it worked out.”
Miller said she wants to keep the momentum from this win.
“I think as long as myself and my team keeps the confidence and the skills we know we have then we’ll definitely be good and make it to nationals.”
After scoring almost two points higher then the competition, Nelson said he enjoyed having the team finish with their floor exercises.
“Finishing on floor is always fun because its one of our strongest events,” Nelson said, “and having the senior parents sitting near the sideline, just the feeling in the air, we had a great crowd especially for a four day weekend. It made everyone feel really good and really strong.”
Nelson said he is looking toward the next meets on their schedule.
“We have four more competitions left,” Nelson said. “We’re going to have ECAC Championships right here and were going to take this win and keep on moving forward and building best we can.”
