No. 5 OU Faces Road Test at No. 2 Arkansas

Feb. 4, 2012

Women's Gymnastics at Arkansas
Date	Sunday, Feb. 5 at 2 p.m. (CT)
Location	Fayetteville, Ark. \| Barnhill Arena
TV	Cox Sports (Tape Delay)
Online	Live Webcast (Premium) \| Live Scoring
Additional Info	Media Guide \| Meet Notes \| Blog \| Twitter

NORMAN, Okla. -- The fifth-ranked Oklahoma women's gymnastics team faces its second top five opponent of the season and second top 10 opponent of the weekend Sunday, Feb. 5 as the Sooners head to Fayetteville, Ark., to compete against No. 2 Arkansas in Barnhill Arena at 2 p.m.

Oklahoma (9-2) is coming off its first regular season home loss since 2009. The Sooners finished second behind No. 9 Nebraska Friday, despite tying their second-best team score of the season with a 196.475.

OU held a comfortable first-place lead heading into the final rotation but Nebraska jumped the Sooners after OU was forced to count a fall on floor while the Huskers posted a 49.250 on vault in the final rotation.

Arkansas (7-1) enters Sunday's meet after beating No. 13 Auburn at home on Friday with a score of 196.800. The Razorbacks have been ranked in the top three in all four weeks of the 2012 season and were tied for No. 1 with UCLA the week of Jan. 23.

The Sooners lead the all-time series with Arkansas, 7-2. OU won the last meeting between the schools at the 2011 NCAA Championship Semifinal in Cleveland on April 15. OU finished first in the semifinal to advance to the 2011 NCAA Super Six, while Arkansas finished fourth.

ON THE WEB
Sunday's meet can be seen via live webcast on ArkansasRazorback.com. The meet will also be broadcast on tape delay by Cox Sports Television on Feb. 12 at 5 p.m. (check local listings). Live scoring during the meet will also be available at ArkansasRazorbacks.com

GYMNAST TO WATCH - MEGAN FERGUSON
The senior five-time All-American won both bars and beam on Friday at OU's quad meet with Centenary, Minnesota and Nebraska with season-high scores of 9.925 on both events. Ferguson has scored a 9.8 or higher in 14 of her 15 routines this year and has scored a 9.9 or higher in five of the 15 tries. Ferguson also leads the team with eight event titles in OU's five competitions.

NEXT UP
The Sooners will compete at the Perfect 10 Challenge, hosted by Bart Conner Gymnastics, in Oklahoma City, Okla., at the Cox Convention Center on Friday, Feb. 10 at 7 p.m., alongside Iowa State and SEMO.

LAST TIME OUT
The fifth-ranked Oklahoma women's gymnastics squad suffered its first regular season home loss in three seasons Friday at the Lloyd Noble Center after finishing in second place with a 196.475 behind No. 9 Nebraska's 196.750. Oklahoma (9-2) finished ahead of No. 25 Minnesota and Centenary but fell behind the Huskers after two falls on floor in the final rotation.

AWAY FROM THE NORM
OU's loss on Friday at the Lloyd Noble Center was just the second home regular season loss in the Kindler era. The last home loss for the Sooners was on Jan. 26, 2009 to Arkansas. Including the postseason, the Sooners are 45-3 at home under Kindler. Despite holding first place after three rotations, the Sooners were forced to count a fall on floor in the final rotation of the evening while Nebraska posted a 49.250 on vault in the fourth rotation. The Huskers clinched the win with a 9.95 and a 9.925 from the final two spots in the lineup.

TO BE THE BEST...
You have to beat the best. OU is no stranger to tough schedules and 2012 is no exception. The Sooners have five of the current top 10 teams on its 2012 slate, including No. 2 Arkansas and No. 9 Nebraska in a 48-hour span this weekend. OU hosted the Huskers Friday, Feb. 3 at the Lloyd Noble Center before heading to Fayetteville, Ark., on Sunday, Feb. 5. OU will also see No. 6 Alabama on March 2 at the LNC and No. 7 UCLA the following weekend on March 11 in L.A.

BIG 12'S BEST
OU has won five of the first 12 Big 12 weekly awards of 2012 and have won all four Big 12 Event Specialist of the Week honors. Brie Olson was named Big 12 Event Specialist of the week on Jan. 10, Taylor Spears was Event Specialist of the Week on Jan. 17 and then Gymnast of the Week on Jan. 24 while Sara Stone was named Event Specialist of the Week on Jan. 24 and Jan. 31.

SENIOR STANDOUTS
Seniors Megan Ferguson and Sara Stone have provided consistency and stability for the Sooners in 2012 with no better example than the Sooners' past two meets. Combined, Ferguson and Stone won or shared seven of the 10 event titles, set three career-highs and scored a 9.9 or higher in nine of 18 routines. Ferguson has posted a 9.8 or higher in 14 of her 15 routines this season while both Ferguson and Stone have scored a 9.9 or higher in five of each of their 15 tries.

197 AND COUNTING
With the 197.450 at TWU on Jan. 21, OU became the first program in the country to break the 197-mark on the road this season. Just three teams have scored higher than the Sooners' 197.450 (No. 1 Utah, No. 3 Florida and No. 7 UCLA). The 197.450 was the fourth-highest team score in school history and was the second-highest score in the Kindler era. OU's program-best team score of 197.950 came on March 5, 2010 against then-No. 1 Alabama at the Lloyd Noble Center.

FIRST TIME'S THE CHARM
Taylor Spears made her first career appearance in the all-around on Jan. 21 at TWU. The sophomore won the all-around title Saturday with a career-high 39.200 and moved up to No. 18 nationally in the all-around and No. 8 on floor with her performance. At TWU, Spears posted a career-high 9.9 on vault to finish in second place on the event, tied her career-high on floor with a 9.875 to finish in third place on the apparatus, scored a 9.8 on bars and a 9.625 on beam. Spears was the first OU gymnast to compete in the all-around this season and just the fourth Sooner gymnast to compete in the all-around in the last three years.

STREAK SNAPPED
The Sooners lost their first regular season meet since 2009 last week as OU fell to No. 7 Oregon State, 196.525-195.975. OU's last regular-season loss was to Alabama in Tuscaloosa on March 13, 2009. With the loss, OU's nation-leading regular season win streak of 32 ended. Despite the loss, Oklahoma is 70-7 in the regular season under Kindler. OU clinched its third perfect regular season in four years (and second straight) on March 11, 2011, with its 196.875-194.800 win over Michigan State in Norman.

CLOSER LOOK AT OKLAHOMA IN 2012
OU starts the 2012 season ranked No. 4 in the GymInfo preseason coaches poll, behind No. 1 UCLA, No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Florida. The Sooners received two first place votes in the poll and tied OU's program-best preseason ranking. The Sooners add five newcomers for 2012 and return an impressive 18 of 24 routines from the 2011 lineup, including nine All-American performances. Headlining OU's returners are five-time All-American Megan Ferguson, two-time All-American Kayla Nowak and All-Americans Brie Olson and Sara Stone. Ferguson, Nowak Olson and Stone provide veteran leadership and experience that will be vital for the young Sooners. OU will be tested in 2012 with the loss of All-American Natasha Kelley and a challenging schedule. Kelley, who consistently scored in the 9.9s on vault, bars and beam, suffered a season-ending injury during preseason practice. The loss of Kelley's talent and experience will challenge OU's depth throughout the 2012 schedule, which includes 10 teams ranked in the preseason top 25 and five top 10 teams.

FOLLOW THE SOONERS
The OU gymnastics program maintains its own Facebook, YouTube and Twitter accounts, which are updated frequently with all of the latest news about the squad. Links to each of these pages as well as a behind-the-scenes blog can be found at www. SoonerSports.com.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

No. 5 OU Faces Road Test at No. 2 Arkansas

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors