Jan. 19, 2017
By Jeff Shearer
AuburnTigers.com
AUBURN, Ala. - For Auburn's gymnasts, it's "BYOE" - "Bring Your Own Energy" - Friday at Kentucky.
After two home meets, including a sellout last week against Georgia, No. 11 Auburn hits the road for the first time this season, competing Friday at 6 p.m. against No. 9 Kentucky.
"We're going to try to focus on our team energy this week because we're going to have to generate it ourselves since we're not going to have our fans," said senior Lucia Scaglione. "So we're going to have to focus on trying to keep the energy up throughout the meet."
Scaglione hopes she and her teammates can quiet the crowd in the Commonwealth.
"In a more hostile environment, we're kind of like, `Oh, let's show them what we can do, because they want us to do bad, but let's prove that we can do good,'" she said.
Auburn sophomore Emma Engler wants to be part of Operation Mute Big Blue.
"It's fun seeing other schools," Engler said. "Seeing their environments. It's fun to be in front of crowds that don't want you to do well, so you can say, `Watch us do what we know how to do.' You thrive off of your own team's energy and other people's arenas and you just get a whole new experience."
As much as coach Jeff Graba appreciates sellouts at Auburn Arena, he prefers opening the season away because of the team-building benefits of road trips.
"I hope they grow like typically you grow on the road," Graba said. "We're going to have three meets in two weeks and they're against tough competition. All three teams are in the top 10 right now. We have a steep learning curve in a really young team that needs to get it figured out pretty quickly."
Next weekend, Auburn will compete twice within 48 hours, Friday, January 27 at No. 3 Florida, and Sunday in Birmingham against No. 4 Alabama.
The depth Graba has been building, by shuffling Auburn's lineup in the first two meets, will be tested.
"When the girls who we put in did really well, it makes our decisions tougher as we go forward," he said. "That's a positive, but it's also giving more questions to us."
Graba says Auburn has performed better in practice than in the first two meets, an issue he's hoping his team will resolve against Kentucky.
"We still have room for improvement," he said. "So we're still chipping away at the stone on a young team."
🎥It's No. 11 @AuburnGym at No. 9 @UKGymnastics Friday at 6 pm. @CoachJeffGraba & Emma Engler looking for carryover from practice to meets. pic.twitter.com/wGAZawBPMJ
-- Jeff Shearer (@jeff_shearer) January 18, 2017
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @jeff_shearer