Down by about two points going into its last rotation, the gymnastics team rallied on the floor exercise to produce a 182.225–181.100 comeback over Springfield College on Saturday in Ben Light Gymnasium.

Sophomore Lauren Moroch got things started for the Bombers with an enthusiastic performance and the scores just escalated from there. The Blue and Gold lined the edges of the floor to cheer on their teammates, almost as if their voices and sheer hope would propel the gymnast on the floor to automatically nail her routine.

Senior captains Brianne Sullivan and Kailee Spusta looked comfortable under all the pressure. Newcomer Katie Sampson had her first appearance at the college level on the last rotation and wowed the audience with her difficult series of tumbling passes. After presenting to the judges, Sampson galloped around with delight as she received hugs from coaches and teammates. Always consistent sophomores Kay Gordon and Jessica Bolduc also contributed scores to the perfect ending recovery.

“The comeback on floor was huge,” Head Coach Rick Suddaby said. “They went out and performed floor the way it should be performed and I knew we were going to be great on floor when we got there.”

Not only did the Bombers have to pull out all the stops going into the last rotation to win the meet, but Springfield was also on their heels the entire competition. A murmur of excitement rippled through the audience as the first rotation scores were posted, Ithaca on the vault and the Pride on bars. The Blue and Gold were up by almost two points going into bars.

“I felt great about my bar routine,” senior captain Rachel Taylor said. “A lot of people had fallen before me and I was glad I could pull the team back up.”

Taylor, Gordon and Bolduc’s performances drew wild applause, but Ithaca’s bobbles in its bar rotation opened the door for Springfield, down only a fourth of a tenth going into the third rotation.

“We could have done better on bars,” Suddaby said. “The girls made mistakes that don’t normally happen.”

The Bombers had a hard time on beam as well. As the gymnasts were plagued with falls and wobbles on the event, the Pride gained two points over the Bombers heading to floor, their last shot. The girls huddled together in the back corner of the gym and pumped each other up in hope of bouncing back.

“We knew it was close going into floor but we regrouped after beam and just told ourselves that we don’t have control over anything else but doing what we do and it paid off,” Taylor said.

The Bombers’ second straight win marked their first win over a ranked opponent in No. 3 Springfield. With this victory, the gymnasts extend their record to 2–1. The Bombers continue their season at 1 p.m. Saturday as they travel to Southern Connecticut State University.