Special to Gatorsports.com

BATON ROUGE, La. – It was exactly what was expected for a meeting of top-five gymnastics teams Friday night. After trading the lead back and forth, it was No. 3 Florida hitting every routine on its final rotation to surge ahead to take a 197.50 – 197.425 win at No. 5 Louisiana State.

Tonight’s attendance of 12,093 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center is the seventh highest in LSU history. Three of LSU’s top seven crowds are versus Florida.

“Super excited and joyful for this team,” UF coach Jenny Rowland said. “They reaped the benefits tonight of the hard work they have been putting in the gym. They’ve been going in day in and day out, putting in the numbers like everyone else, but when we come out on the floor there was such a sense of calmness that is such an eerie feeling, but a great feeling as well.

“But this team did a fabulous job. I’d say we came out a little timid tonight, a little reserved, nothing extreme, but a little cautious. But after the first event, the Gators started getting on a roll so I was very proud to see them settle down a bit and just do what they’ve been doing.”

Florida(2-0, 2-0 SEC) now leads the all-time series between the two schools, 71-40, after winning here for the first time since 2011. Florida’s 0.075 margin of victory tonight is the 17th span of half a point or less in the last 21 meetings.