Gamecocks lose tiebreaker in rematch with Georgia
It had been over six months since a regular season match between the South Carolina and Georgia equestrian teams came down to a deciding tiebreaker.
The Gamecocks did not benefit in the October meeting that saw the two teams tied at the end of the match, headed to a tiebreaker that the Gamecocks would ultimately lose.
This time around, South Carolina was forced to watch as Georgia celebrated the win (again) in the tiebreaker to claim the NCEA national title, effectively ending the Gamecocks’ season.
“I certainly think that when you’re competing with a good team like Georgia, you just can’t make mistakes,” head coach Boo Major said. “And unfortunately, we made a few mistakes that we couldn’t get back. I just can’t tell you how proud I am of this team.”
The Bulldogs grabbed an early lead when they took three of four points from South Carolina in equitation on the flat. Gamecock junior Alexa Anthony was able to win the first point of the match for the team but would watch as Georgia claimed the next three.
South Carolina shined in both horsemanship and equitation over fences, taking three points from each event, six in total. Senior Alison Ceresani took the first point of the horsemanship category and would combine with other point-getters redshirt senior Johnna Letchworth and junior Sam Chiodo to take a convincing 3-1 victory in the event.
Major spoke on South Carolina’s valiant attempt to take the lead, led mostly by a veteran senior squad.
“They went out there, and there was certainly a lot of pressure on them to stay positive and keep doing good things out there,” Major said. “Alexa didn’t win her point, but, again, it was the same situation where she didn’t lose by much and she really put it all out there.”
The Gamecocks would get contributions from juniors Amber Henter and Katherine Schmidt in the event, earning a 3-1 win.
With the two teams exchanging blows, trading event for event, the scoring in reigning eventually proved to be the difference maker between the squads.
The Gamecocks held the lead 7-5 heading into the event, but watched as Lauren Garmon evened the match at seven points apiece. Then Lauren Tieche put the Bulldogs on top in what proved to be the final blow. Junior Layla Choate managed to pull through in the final point, pushing the score to 8-8, but it would prove to be all for naught as the Bulldogs bested South Carolina with a raw score of 2,323.5-2,219.
Saturday’s loss was just the third of the Gamecocks’ season. Two of the team’s three losses came against Georgia, with the other coming at the hands of Texas A&M earlier this season. The Gamecocks had reeled off eleven consecutive wins before the loss.
South Carolina managed to defeat both TCU (9-7) and Auburn (10-6) at the NCEA National Championship in Waco, Tx., but could not escape its rival SEC foe.
“We just … weren’t able to carry it out in the long run,” Major said. “Our girls just handled themselves beautifully, and I can’t be more proud of them.”