For the first time this season, Florida will travel to Alabama, but if the Gators continue to succeed, tonight’s outing likely will not be the last.
No. 3 Florida (7-0, 5-0 Southeastern Conference) takes on No. 4 Alabama (7-3, 5-1 SEC) in Tuscaloosa, Ala., at 8:30 p.m.
Florida will return to Alabama — Birmingham not Tuscaloosa — for the SEC Championship in March and possibly the NCAA Championship in April.
But coach Rhonda Faehn said her team is treating this road meet like any other.
“This is a regular season dual meet and we treat it as such,” Faehn said. “I really feel this is going to be an excellent opportunity for our team heading into our eighth meet of the year, getting near the end of our regular season, to really start to gel with our lineups, the position of our lineups and really getting to look for getting those landings and having a solid road competition.”
With only three meets left in the regular season, Faehn said she’s ready to debut a postseason lineup.
“For the most part, I think it’s as close as we are to having the lineups,” Faehn said. “We still have one more day of training so we can kind of see from there and make sure it’s solid.”
Included in tonight’s lineup and Florida’s postseason lineup is senior Alaina Johnson. Johnson competed all-around in Florida’s last three meets and she’s competed on vault, uneven bars and balance beam in all of UF’s 2014 meets.
“She’s a senior with great experience and is a great leader out there on the floor as well,” Faehn said. “So we will be looking to her to be a very solid all around contributor.”
The only freshman included in that lineup will be Claire Boyce.
The Texas native has competed on balance beam and floor at all of UF’s meets this season.
While Boyce puts up solid scores in the 9.80 range on floor, she’s shown even more talent with multiple 9.90s on beam.
“It’s all about being consistent in practice,” Boyce said. “If you’re consistent in practice then you’re going to perform how you practice so I just work on being confident and trying to hit days on beam with no wobbles.”
Faehn recognized the tough challenge posed by competing in Alabama’s Coleman Coliseum — especially for the more inexperienced gymnasts.
“The majority of the competitors in our lineup have been put under pressure situations like we’ll encounter Friday,” Faehn said. “It’ll be a little bit newer of course for our freshman who haven’t been a part of that just yet and I think it’s going to be exciting.”
Follow Erica A. Hernandez on Twitter @EricaAlyssa
