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- The Red Rocks secured a 197.500 score to win the Corvallis semifinal.
- Utah advances to the regional final with Alabama, scoring higher than Oregon State.
- Coach Dockendorf praised the team's confidence, aiming for nationals in Dallas.
CORVALLIS, Ore. — The job isn't finished yet, but it got a little closer for the Red Rocks Friday afternoon.
In the first session of the Corvallis Regional semifinal, the Red Rocks started out strong to take an early meet lead and never relinquished it in a wire-to-wire finish. The 12th-seeded Red Rocks won the first session with a 197.500 score to advance to Sunday's regional final.
Joining Utah in the regional final is fifth-ranked Alabama, who ended the afternoon meet with a 197.225. Regional host Oregon State took third with a 196.375 and Denver rounded out the first session scores with a 195.950.
"Super proud of this team," Red Rocks head coach Carly Dockendorf said. "That's a great score for us, and we definitely left a lot of tenths out there on some landings and some little things. But for us to do that at the first day of regionals is awesome for us, and I think just really built our confidence going into the final on Sunday.
"We just competed with a lot of calmness and confidence and just stayed focused on the team from the start to finish."
For Utah, it was one of a few complete meets this season, with the team scoring no lower than a 49.350 on all four events. It's a focal point of the team as it entered postseason play, knowing that a poor fourth event could likely spell trouble in the team's chances of advancing.
But on Friday afternoon, there was no stumble or problem event — even with it not being a perfect meet.
The Red Rocks opened up the regional meet on bars, where Ashley Glynn in the second spot and Avery Neff in the anchor scored a team-high 9.90 on the event to lift Utah to 49.350 and a 0.100 lead over Oregon State, who came out hot with the home crowd on their side to overtake a ranked Alabama.
But the Crimson Tide had a strong second rotation on bars (49.525) — including four scores 9.90 or higher — to overtake Oregon State and tie up the meet with the Red Rocks at the midway point.
Utah earned a team-high score (49.350) on the second rotation on beam to never give up its lead against a surging Alabama team. The Red Rocks rattled off three consecutive 9.90 scores or higher, with Neff topping the scores with a 9.925 in the fifth spot.
Neff remained a force all afternoon and scored no lower than a 9.90 on all four events to win the all-around competition (39.650) in the first session.
Though Alabama made its push, Utah was simply better in the final two rotations to build up a lead for the eventual win.
On floor, Sarah Krump opened up the event with a 9.850 score that was then topped by Zoe Johnson's 9.875 before the Red Rocks reeled off three high scores, starting with Neff's 9.925 and Ella Zirbes and Makenna Smith's 9.90 scores.
Going into the final rotation of the meet, Utah controlled a 0.275 lead and just needed to hit on all five scores to advance to Sunday's meet. For that reason, Dockendorf told her team to not overthink vault and just get the best score they can without fighting for sticks or opening up opportunities for major deductions.
"Just trying to not overthink or try too hard, because definitely it would be easy to do that, especially on vault, trying to go for some perfect landings," Dockendorf said. "But we knew we didn't need that. We just need to do some big vaults. And this vault team is so well prepared to compete under pressure, and I thought they did an excellent job on that last rotation."
With three straight 9.850 scores, Glynn and Neff rounded out the afternoon with a pair of 9.90's to leave no doubt.
Alabama and Utah will no await the winners of the second session that includes UCLA, Minnesota, Iowa and Washington. The top two teams from the second session will advance to Sunday's final (6 p.m. MDT, ESPN+).
From that regional final on Sunday, the top-two teams will advance to the nationals in Dallas, Texas.
"I really think today is going to give the team that extra little boost of confidence to go in on Sunday and be like, we absolutely can do this," Dockendorf said.
Team scores
Utah
- Bars: 49.350
- Beam: 98.700 (49.350)
- Floor: 148.150 (49.450)
- Vault: 197.500 (49.350)
Alabama
- Vault: 49.175
- Bars: 98.700 (49.525)
- Beam: 147.875 (49.175)
- Floor: 197.225 (49.350)
Denver
- Beam: 48.925
- Floor: 98.225 (49.300)
- Vault: 147.200 (48.975)
- Bars: 195.950 (48.750)
Oregon State
- Floor: 49.250
- Vault: 98.100 (48.850)
- Bars: 147.450 (49.350)
- Beam: 196.375 (48.925)
Red Rocks scores
1st Rotation: Bars (49.350)
- Makenna Smith: 9.850
- Ashley Glynn: 9.900
- Abbi Ryssman: 9.800
- Ella Zirbes: 9.825
- Ana Padurariu: 9.875
- Avery Neff: 9.900
2nd Rotation: Beam (49.350)
- Elizabeth Gantner: 9.825
- Ella Zirbes: 9.775
- Abbi Ryssman: 9.900
- Ana Padurariu: 9.900
- Avery Neff: 9.925
- Camie Winger: 9.800
3rd Rotation: Floor (49.450)
- Sarah Krump: 9.850
- Zoe Johnson: 9.875
- Avery Neff: 9.925
- Ella Zirbes: 9.900
- Makenna Smith: 9.900
- Sage Curtis: 9.450
4th Rotation: Vault (49.350)
- Camie Winger: 9.750
- Ella Zirbes: 9.850
- Zoe Johnson: 9.850
- Makenna Smith: 9.850
- Ashley Glynn: 9.900
- Avery Neff: 9.900
