Sophomore Leah Slobodin performs leaps high in the air during her routine on the beam in Maryland’s 194.575-197.125 loss to Michigan on Feb. 7, 2014 at the Xfinity Center.
Senior Karen Tang fell forward after landing off the vault in the Terrapins gymnastics team’s NCAA regional competition in Auburn, Alabama on Saturday, and her teammates held their breath.
In the first routine during the opening rotation of their meet, the Terps knew they had to hit their remaining five vaults in the lineup so Tang’s low mark wouldn’t count toward their overall score.
With the next three gymnasts all first-year contributors in the biggest meet of the Terps’ postseason, it would have been hard to blame coach Brett Nelligan and his squad for feeling nervous about avoiding another mistake.
But the younger gymnasts came through both on vault and throughout the remainder of the competition en route to the No. 5-seed Terps’ third-place finish in their final meet of the season.
“We learned a lot about them tonight,” Nelligan said. “We’ve been learning about them all year, but tonight we saw in front of a huge crowd on the biggest stage, the most pressure, they elevated themselves. So that, for us, is huge going forward because we know we can count on them, and we can start to build on that with next year’s freshmen.”
Sophomore Leah Slobodin, who redshirted her freshman year with a torn Achilles tendon, was the first to vault after Tang’s slip. She earned a 9.775 score that freshman Dominiquea Trotter matched minutes later.
Freshman Abbie Epperson followed her two fellow rookies and garnered a 9.80 that tied for the Terps’ best on the event.
Slobodin, Trotter and Epperson had never been to an NCAA regional competition, but afterward, Epperson said the heightened tension in the Terps’ vaulting rotation didn’t deter the inexperienced gymnasts’ approaches.
“We haven’t had [a fall on vault] very often this season, so I think we weren’t too worried about it,” Epperson said. “We just kind of stuck with what we’ve been doing all season, and it worked out. We go 6-for-6 all the time, so I didn’t feel a lot of pressure.”
The rookies’ production on Saturday wasn’t limited to vault. On bars, Epperson swung with clean lines and nearly stuck her dismount to bring in another 9.80 routine.
Trotter and Slobodin both competed beam and floor in the Terps’ final two events. Trotter tallied a 9.675 on beam and added a 9.70 on floor in the leadoff position.
Slobodin earned a 9.80 on beam to tie senior Shannon Skochko for the Terps’ highest score on the event. She then performed her floor routine to grab a 9.825 in the Terps’ closing rotation. She finished in ninth place on floor due to ties, though only three scores were higher than hers.
“Dominiquea did three out of four events [consistently] pretty much all year,” Epperson said. “And then Leah, you can just see it. The way she attacks. She’s a really strong competitor. I could see her doing all four [events] next year and the rest of her years.”
With six seniors set to leave the program, Nelligan said he’ll lean on his underclassmen to carry much of the team’s production for years to come.
Much like they did as the heart of the vault lineup on Saturday night.
“I am so proud of our underclassmen,” Skochko said. “They have bright futures ahead of them, and I know we have a big class that’s graduating. But I have no doubt in my mind that every one of them is going to step up and be a leader and just continue to do amazing things for the rest of their careers at Maryland.”
