Feb. 26, 2009
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Wildcats will host their final home meet of the season on Fri., Feb. 27 against No. 48 Ball State (1-5 overall), No. 15 Illinois (11-5), No. 36 North Carolina (9-8) and William & Mary (2-13). Prior to the start of the meet three Kentucky seniors will be honored. Bridget Carreiro, Heather Hite and Natalie Rubinstein will be recognized as they perform their final routines in Memorial Coliseum. The meet is slated to begin at 7 p.m. ET with Senior Night festivities to begin at 6:47 p.m.
Previously, Kentucky (2-6 overall, 0-6 conference) was defeated by the No. 5 Auburn Tigers in Auburn, Ala., 196.475-192.550. Despite shaky performances in other areas, UK achieved a season-high beam score of 48.750 in its last meet against the Tigers. Hite tied for second-place with a score of 9.825, while Carreiro nabbed a season-high of 9.775. Leading the Cats for the sixth time on the uneven bars was Rubinstein with a 9.800.
Junior Emily Green ranks No. 26 on the vault while sophomore Jasmine Minion is No. 36, with both never scoring below a 9.800 this season and averaging a 9.843 and 9.836, respectively. Rubinstein is the other nationally ranked gymnast for the Cats at No. 34 on the uneven bars.
The Wildcats are the second highest ranked team among the five that will be competing Friday night. Illinois is top-20 at No. 15 while the Cats are No. 28. Ball State and UNC are both in the top-50 as the nation’s 48th and 36th ranked teams, respectively. William and Mary is not ranked because they have not yet competed in three away meets, a requirement for calculating Regional Qualifying Scores (RQS) on which rankings are based.
Ball State is coming off a 190.975-189.800 home win over the Western Michigan Broncos. The Fighting Illini most recently took second place with a season-best road score of 195.900 in their quad-meet in Seattle, Wash. North Carolina’s gymnastics team scored its second-highest total of the season with a194.775 to finish second in its tri-meet against No. 10 LSU and Illinois-Chicago. The William & Mary Tribe are coming off a season-best performance with a score of 190.400, falling to George Washington 193.250.
UK is undefeated against William & Mary and Illinois, boasting records of 5-0 and 3-0, respectively. The Wildcats hold a much closer advantage over North Carolina, 6-5, and a 9-3 lead over Ball State in the all-time series.
Kentucky continues to hold an undefeated record 10-0, against non-conference teams in the regular season dating back to March 7, 2008 when the Blue and White knocked off Arizona and Western Michigan during the 2008 Senior Night.
