Baylor
SMU
EQ Comeback Bid at SMU Falls Short
10/14/2017 12:00:00 AM | Equestrian
THE RUNDOWN
DALLAS, Texas - No. 7 Baylor equestrian (1-2) made a strong push to close an early gap, but came up short on the raw scores (1566.0-1491.5), dropping a 10-10 decision with No. 5 SMU (2-0) on Saturday afternoon at the Dallas Equestrian Center.
The meet started with fences, with BU falling behind, 3-2. Madison Day and Shannon Hogue picked up their points for the Bears. Day took an 85-84 win, earning Most Outstanding Performance (MOP) honors with the meet-high score.
Transitioning into reining, the Bears dug deeper into the deficit, falling 4-1 in the event and dropping to 7-3 in the overall score.
The one bright spot for the Bears was a strong 72-71.5 win for Georgia Smith, earning BU's second MOP honors.
Continuing with horsemanship, the Bears came up clutch, going 5-0 to sweep their points. Clara Johnson, Kaylee Mellott, Abbi Demel, Charlotte Green, and Elizabeth Forney all came up with wins, with Green's 73-71 win earning the MOP nod.
Closing with flat, a 3-2 deficit for the Bears left the door open for the Mustangs to draw on points and end up snaking away the win on the tiebreaker score.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Madison Day took home her first MOP honors of the year, improving to 1-1 in fences and posting the season-high scoring mark for the Bears.
- Georgia Smith earned her second-straight MOP honors in reining, matching her team season-high score of 72.
- Charlotte Green earned her first MOP award of the season, helping lead the horsemanship squad to its second 5-0 sweep of the season (Sep. 22, vs. WTAMU).
STAT OF THE DAY
3 - the number of MOP honors taken by the Bears, despite just one event win (horsemanship).
TOP QUOTES
"Although today was a tough loss for our team, I was blessed to draw a horse that was a lot of fun to ride and earn MOP on him. Next week is a whole new week against Auburn and I think we are able to go home, work on some details, and bring our A-game." - Baylor sophomore Georgia Smith
"Horsemanship was really good today, we prepared for this really well and were able to show it with a 5-0 sweep. I had a different kind of horse than I'm used to, but I was able to adjust and get a good ride. We had great energy, overall, and I'm excited to see what we can do next week at Auburn." - Baylor senior Charlotte Green
"It was great seeing all the practice from this week translate into my ride today and I was really happy with the result. It was an honor receiving an MOP award against so many strong rides. As a team, we came out with high energy and all put in confident rides. We are improving more and more each week, but as always, there is room for more. We will take what we learned from today and prepare to sic Auburn on Saturday." - Baylor sophomore Madison Day
"Today was definitely a difficult loss for us, as we had a really outstanding week of practice. It's a challenge, but we have to be able to demonstrate our preparations on the road better than we have been able to. We made a big comeback in the second half, which pulled us to a tie and earned our team three MOP honors. That tells me we have amazing resilience and the judges see our talent, we just have to have stronger rides through the depth of our roster in order to pull out a win on the road. We're making progress each week and we'll continue to make strides and put ourselves back out there on the road at Auburn this week." - Baylor head coach Casie Maxwell
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor continues its tough road gauntlet test, heading east to take on Auburn on Saturday, Oct. 21 in Auburn, Ala.
#SicEm
Players Mentioned
