FAYETTEVILLE — All-American Jaime Pisani and No. 15 Arkansas stayed even with No. 1 Florida for three rotations, then the Razorbacks used their best floor routine of the season to pull away for a 196.7-196.1 upset over the previously unbeaten Gators.
Arkansas beat a top-ranked Florida team for the second time in three years.
“Absolutely our best performance of the year,” Arkansas Co-Coach Rene Cook said. “I thought we had a lot of energy and aggression. I thought we performed confidently. All the things we’ve been waiting to see all year, we finally did.”
Arkansas (5-3, 5-1 SEC) posted its highest score of the season overall and in all four events in front of a seasonhigh crowd of 3,174 fans as it rebounded from a disappointing home loss to then-No. 28 BYU one week ago.
“Last week was an eyeopener for us,” Pisani said. “We are so much more capable than what we performed last week and all year. I think we need to carry this momentum on for the rest of the season. Tonight was awesome.”
Pisani won all-around honors, scoring 39.600 and easily besting second-place Florida sophomore Ashanee Dickerson’s 38.950 score. Pisani also placed first on the balance beam while tying for first on the vault and floor routines.
“She just keeps getting better, and it’s even amazing to us how much better she’s gotten,” Cook said. “It’s exciting because it’s not only good for her but the whole team. She expects the things from the team that she expects from herself.”
The teams entered the final rotation tied at 147.55. The Razorbacks’ final event was the floor routine, while the Gators were on the balance beam.
It was the same scenario two years ago when No. 8 Arkansas shocked No. 1 Florida 196.375-195.325 in Barnhill.
“We did it two years ago,” Pisani said. “They came here and were ranked number one but went down on beam. This year we just had that same feeling that it was a close meet and we were going to get them at the last event.”
Florida (11-1, 5-1) quickly pulled ahead in the fourth rotation when junior Elizabeth Mahlich and sophomore Randy Stageberg scored 9.85s on the beam. Then two Gators, freshman Alaina Johnson and Dickerson, fell off the beam during their performance, meaning Florida was forced to count one ofthe routines.
“We just had a rough night,” Florida Coach Rhonda Faehn said. “All season long we’ve been extremely consistent. We haven’t had to count a fall [on beam] the whole year, so they are human. They made some mistakes and they really let it snowball.”
Four Razorbacks - freshman Bailee Zumwalde, sophomore Kelci Lewis, freshman Katherine Grable and Pisani - scored 9.8 or better on their floor routines, rounded out by Pisani’s 9.9 to end the action.
“We just said from the beginning of the day, if they’re going to beat us, they’re going to have to earn it,” Cook said. “We just committed to working hard the whole meet and when we were tied after three events, we were like, ‘We’ve still got to make them work for it.’
“Florida is an exceptional balance-beam team, so we knew we had to do a good job on floor.”
Sports, Pages 23 on 02/26/2011