PROVO -- In a close scoring meet, the No. 26 Cougars came in a close second to the No. 25 Arizona Wildcats at 195.350 to 195.150, Saturday night in the Smith Fieldhouse.

“We’re continuing to improve and I’m happy about that,” BYU head coach Brad Cattermole said. “However, this was one of our worst performances in the bars and this is a great bar team. We were able to make up for it and do really well on the beam. We’re learning that in order to compete big we need to take chances but when you do that, you make mistakes. We’re hoping to learn from those mistakes and come back and have a better meet next time.”

In the first rotation of the night, BYU started out strong on the bars with five of their six competitors scoring at 9.800 and higher. Natalie Eyre and Haylee Rollins tied for the high score at 9.875, while Eyre tallied her season high and Rollins a career high.

The team finished the first event with an impressive score of 49.175. After a successful rotation on the uneven bars, Arizona came in at a close second to BYU with their team score of 48.925.

Up next for the Cougars was the uneven bars where Rollins, tallying another career high, and Madeleine Johnson, also recording a career high, anchored the team with their scores of 9.875. Jennifer Lezeu stuck the landing to contribute a score of 9.725 while Sarah Yandow received a 9.700.

Arizona racked up high scores in the vault to put their total score at 97.950. BYU’s combined score came just short of the Wildcats at 97.600 after the second rotation.

In the third rotation for the night, BYU stayed balanced as they competed hard on the beam. Eyre received a 9.775 for her routine, while Krysten Koval received a 9.800. It was Lezeu who recorded the event high score of 9.825 on the beam. This event put the Cougars just ahead of Arizona at 146.450 to 146.150, before heading into the fourth and final rotation.

On the floor, Rollins and Megan Bain both contributed high scores of 9.775 to

BYU’s final of 48.700. Unfortunately for the Cougars, Arizona’s beam score totaled 49.200 putting them ahead of BYU for the team finals at 195.350 to 195.150.

The Cougars will next compete against Auburn on March 4 at home in the Smith Fieldhouse.

PROVO -- The No. 26 BYU Cougars and the No. 25 Arizona Wildcats will meet for the second time this season this weekend in Provo. The meet will begin at 7 p.m. in Smith Fieldhouse on Saturday.

“This meet against Arizona will be a lot tougher than the first one,” BYU head coach Brad Cattermole said. “They’re a good team. They struggled in the first meet but they’re not usually like that so we’ll have to bring our ‘A’-game. It should be a fun meet. The girls have prepared well and I think we’ll be ready to go.”

The Cougars and Wildcats previously met in a tri-meet at Utah State. BYU won the meet with a score of 193.075 while Arizona finished in second with a score of 192.750. Now with half of the season under their belts, both teams are hungry for victory as they sit in consecutive positions in the rankings. Arizona sits at No. 25 and is just .005 ahead of BYU.

The Wildcats are coming off a tough loss to University of Stanford where they lost 195.300-194.675. Meanwhile, the Cougars posted their most impressive win of the season last week against No. 12 Arkansas with a score of 195.100.

The Wildcats have shown they are capable of achieving a high score with their season-high of 195.550 while BYU’s season-high of 195.200 came in their last home meet against Texas Women’s.

Families will be admitted to the meet for just five dollars as part of the five dollar family night promotion.

Live stats will be available through www.byucougars.com.