Grace Taylor knew her team was in for a special night in the tunnel prior to the team introductions. She could just feel it.

“There was this energy and we started feeding off of each other and we were in this circle and just screaming and we were so excited.”

Grace Taylor performs on the beam during the meet against UCLA on Saturday, March 6, 2010. Tayor's perfect 10 score was the first for the Gym Dogs this season. Photo by Dorothy Kozlowski

And that energy permeated throughout Stegeman Coliseum during the entire meet between Georgia’s 197.900-197.875 victory over No. 3 UCLA Saturday afternoon.

In a night in which the Gym Dogs had 17 season-best scores, and set the second highest team score —trailing only Oklahoma’s 197.95 — Taylor’s third career perfect 10 stood above them all. It was her second career 10 in the beam, and the first since March 14, 2009 against Michigan.

“It was so fun,” she said. “It was such a high and [senior] Courtney [McCool] and I just lived it up. I remember when I was holding my leg up thinking, ‘I love this moment. I love beam.’”

And her score was a long-time coming in the eyes of her teammates.

“Oh my gosh, Grace Taylor is amazing,” freshman Noel Couch said. “She is a super senior. She gets up there and she is so poised and confident and its like she is walking on air up there and she just nailed her skills and nailed her dismount and everybody just went crazy. I was ecstatic for her.”

“Grace deserves a 10 every time she goes up,” sophomore Kat Ding said. “Her beam is amazing, her lines are gorgeous and everything is perfection and she deserves a 10 again and again and again and I’m so glad she got it. Our confidence is through the roof on beam anyways, we have the ‘dream’ beam team.”

“Grace is like a swan on the beam,” added junior Cassidy McComb. “Her name explains her on the beam. Every time she goes up there you know she is going to hit and watching her hit that was unbelievable.”

UCLA’s Elyse Hofpner-Hibbs also earned a perfect 10 on the balance beam.

‘Freshie power’ propels Gym Dogs

The Gym Dogs needed their freshman in step up and contribute all season. In fact, freshman Noel Couch was the first Gym Dog to compete this season, and they have done that.

But Saturday, they drove Georgia to victory. On the balance beam, the Gym Dogs’ success held in the balance. Sophomore Hilary Mauro fell and the next two beam workers were freshman Couch and Christa Tanella.

Couch had only competed on the beam once — in Auburn on Jan. 29 — and Tanella twice, and both scored career high 9.9s.

“I just got up there, spread my wings and flew,” Couch said. “I just felt so confident. I knew I could do it. It was just a matter of me getting up there and showing what I can do and Christa followed it up perfectly. She just went up there and did the exact same thing and it was an amazing experience for us both to get up there and nail our routines.”

Added Tanella: “You practice it in the gym, and I know that sounds so cliché, but you do and meets are such a different atmosphere. But its all muscle memory and you practice how to calm yourself in the gym. Just the freshie power that was out there was awesome.”

Following Taylor’s 10, senior Courtney McCool added a 9.9 and the momentum spread to the floor. But non of it would have ever happened if not for the performances of Couch and Tanella.

“That is the most impressive and inspiring thing they could have done,” Ding said. “Pressure on beam is a very difficult thing to deal with. I would have been nervous, I would have been scared and shaking, and they handled it like pros.”

“The freshmen had to grow up in a hurry,” Georgia head coach Jay Clark said, “and they did a great job of stepping up to the plate and it was amazing.”

McCool under pressure

Pressure is nothing new for McCool. She anchors each of her three events — the uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise — and twice has had the outcome of a meet depend on her routine.

And Saturday was no different. Following a spectacular performance by UCLA on the balance beam — a 49.65 as four Bruins scored 9.925 or higher — McCool needed a 9.925 or higher to give Georgia a win.

Her season high was a 9.95, but on this night she was debuting a new, and more difficult, final tumbling pass to her floor exercise.

“I wish I had known that [UCLA’s Mizuki Sato] was capable of doing that on balance beam. Either I was misinformed or she had a great routine, because I started to get a little nervous because McCool was doing a new last pass for the first time. … As soon as I saw that 9.95 go up, I thought, ‘Man I wish I could run out into the middle of the floor and tell her to go conservative.’ But that kid did a great job and she is so confident in herself it’s amazing and it was a nice one to get.”

New pass or not, McCool never doubted her ability. She refused to fail, and wanted redemption after falling on the during her bars routine and with her brother Michael watching her first meet at Georgia.

“He’s in the Navy and he drove eight hours just to be here,” McCool said. “It’s such a blessing for him to be here and I wanted to share my joy in gymnastics with him, and all of our fans.”