The No. 20 Missouri gymnastics team was defeated by No. 9 Kentucky with a final score of 197.100-195.125 at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Kentucky, on Friday.

The Tigers opened the meet on bars. Junior Madeleine Huber completed her routine earning a 9.900, which was a season-best score. Redshirt sophomore Morgan Porter’s routine earned a 9.875, while senior Shauna Miller scored a 9.825. The Tigers started the meet strong with a team score of 49.050, which was only 0.25 points lower than their season high for the event.

Huber continued to perform well in the next rotation on vault, along with sophomore Aspen Tucker; both earned a team-best score of 9.800. Missouri ended the rotation with a team score of 48.775. Kentucky was able to beat out Mizzou with a 49.175 on vault, its third-highest score in this event.

Juniors Allison Bower, Michaelee Turner and senior Kennedi Harris all earned 9.800 or better on their floor routines. Kentucky’s Alex Hyland, however, recorded a career-best 9.925 to win her second floor title of her career. Mizzou earned a team score of 48.750, but Kentucky finished the event with a score of 49.400.

To close the meet, the Tigers scored a 48.550 on beam. Junior Brooke Kelly earned a 9.800, followed by Britney Ward with a 9.725.

Individuals scored high for Missouri, but the team was unable to score enough points together to take down Kentucky’s dominant team totals.

“There were some good performances this evening but as a unit, I felt we lacked some energy,” head coach Shannon Welker said in a press release. “We’re trying to figure out how to be consistent from weekend to weekend. We seem like we can do very, very well at times but consistency is still something we need to get figured out. We’ll keep working on it until it gets done. We have to be better if we want to achieve at the level we feel we are capable of.”

The Tigers traveled to Champaign, Illinois, on Feb. 25 to take on Illinois and Illinois-Chicago at 4 p.m.

_Edited by Bennett Durando | bdurando@themaneater.com_