When Terrapin gymnastics senior Abigail Adams stuck her final landing on floor exercise Friday night, a capacity crowd inside Comcast Center Pavilion gave way to an uproar.
The deafening applause returned moments later when the scorer's table gave Adams a season-high 9.925 for her efforts.
The score, which came at the end of the Terps' second-place finish at a quad meet against No. 18 Penn State, Rutgers and William & Mary, secured the team's first score of 195 or better this season.
"[195] is where we need to be, 195 or better," coach Brett Nelligan said after the meet. "Without a couple of little mistakes, we could've pushed 196 this week."
Wearing black uniforms with pink embroidering to raise awareness for breast cancer, the No. 33 Terps (9-4, 4-0 EAGL) handled EAGL rival Rutgers 195.300-192.975 to continue their undefeated romp through conference play.
The Terps jumped on the Scarlet Knights in their first rotation, posting only one score below a 9.800 on vault.
Freshman Katy Dodds' season-high score of 9.925 set the tone early for the young squad.
"I had a lot of friends and family here, and I kind of fed off their energy at the start of the meet," Dodds said. "Having the home crowd really helped everyone."
Coming off a three-week road trip that saw big wins at North Carolina and Pittsburgh, the Terps appeared intent on making their homecoming one to remember.
When sophomore Ally Krikorian fell off the uneven bars to open their second rotation, the Terps responded by posted five straight scores of 9.650 or better.
"By having falls early, it really put a lot of pressure on the back five to perform," Nelligan said. "I thought it was impressive how they dealt with those circumstances."
As the Terps approached the balance beam to begin their third rotation, the quad meet was effectively a two-team battle. Penn State held a slight 147.225-146.525 advantage over the host, while Rutgers held firmly onto third place with a score of 144.300.
But Penn State delivered a near-perfect final rotation on bars, leaving the Terps with little hope of a comeback.
Led by junior Natalie Ettl's 9.975, the Nittany Lions posted five scores of 9.800 or better to finish at 196.600 on the meet.
"It would have been nice to beat Penn State, but they did what they had to do," Nelligan said. "If they had made a mistake, though, we were right there waiting for them."
Even though Adams' crowd-pleasing performance on floor wasn't enough to pull the upset, the Terps have a chance at redemption. They will travel to University Park, Pa., on March 4 for a dual meet against Penn State.
"This meet gives us that extra boost of confidence we need going forward," Adams said. "We're excited to see [Penn State] again."
letourneau@umdbk.com
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