Georgia Dabritz said the theme for the remainder of the Utes’ season is going to be “road warriors.”
After a promising performance last week at BYU, where they earned Utah’s highest road score since 2009, the team will get another chance to gain some momentum when it travels across the country for its second-straight rivalry meet.
Stegeman Coliseum will be full of red this weekend when No. 7 Utah visits No. 8 Georgia in Athens on Saturday night.
“Anybody in the SEC [is a rival], but especially Georgia,” said co-head coach Megan Marsden. “In these later years where we had a chance to win [nationals] and we got second, it was always to Georgia. These girls know that.”
The rivalry with the Bulldogs is borne from years and years of tough competition between the two teams, which hasn’t always been the case with BYU. Utah and Georgia each have won 10 national championships and are first and second in Super Six appearances — 18 for Utah, 17 for Georgia.
Add that to the fact the Utes and Bulldogs have faced each other every year since 1983 — sometimes two or even three times per season — and the matchup has the making of a fierce competition.
“Georgia is a gymnastics-specific rivalry which makes it really cool,” said junior Lia Del Priore. “It means a little more to us.”
Not many teams can say they lead the all-time series with Utah, but Georgia. The Bulldogs have a 24-22-1 lead and have won 15 out of the last 21 competitions dating back to 2001. But the Utes have won the last three and know they have a good chance to make it four straight.
“We will have to be obviously better, and they maybe will even have to have some mistakes,” Marsden said. “But I do think that we can go down and hang with them. And when you are on someone else’s floor and you hang with them, it sends a strong message because you know that when you get on a neutral floor it could go either way.”
The Bulldogs have a new set of coaches after former coach Jay Clark resigned after last season. His teams failed to make the Super Six during his three-year tenure after Georgia had made it every year since 1993. New coach Danna Durante’s bars team is ranked third in the nation and includes top-ranked bar worker Chelsea Davis as well as Brittany Rogers, who is ranked fifth on the apparatus.
While Georgia’s prowess won’t have any direct effect on Utah’s performance, one of the things this Ute team needs to prepare for is the Bulldog fan base.
“I know they have a rowdy student section that’ll be right along the floor,” Marsden said. “They are known for making the opposing team feel really uncomfortable.”
Del Priore said she’s heard stories of Georgia’s student section holding up newspapers during opponents’ routines trying to get in their heads. Dabritz said the Utes can’t be fazed by that.
“We need to continue being road warriors for the rest of the season,” Dabritz said. “From here on out we only have one more home meet and the rest is going to be on the road. We need to get used to not having our fans there supporting us all the time.”