Christopher Curry/ The Towerlight

Towson earned season-high team scores on the bars and the floor exercise, but fell to Rutgers 195.550-194.500 Friday night at the Towson Center.

The Tigers bounced back after a fall on vault in the first rotation, in which they scored an overall 48.950. Senior Brittany Russell’s 9.875 and sophomore Lydia Thompson’s 9.850 helped overshadow freshman Abby Griswold’s 8.725, which was dropped as the lowest score.

“The one word I’d sum up this meet with is ‘fight,’” Head Coach Vicki Chliszczyk said. “The girls were off on a lot of things but they fought to stay on and make little changes. When we walked off the vault, we knew that the fall would not count and that we were able to get a good score.”

Russell’s score was good for first overall on vault, while Thompson’s routine finished tied for third.

Rutgers, who began on the parallel uneven bars, also had a fall which elicited an 8.875 score. Despite the two highest individual scores, the Scarlet Knights ended the first rotation trailing with a 48.450.

Towson rebounded after the vault, notching a 48.575 on the bars in the second rotation. Thompson, along with junior Alexa Davis, topped the Tigers’ effort with a 9.750 score.

Rutgers did not record a fall on vault and scored a 49.100, its second-highest team score of the meet.

Next for Towson was the balance beam, an event that gave the Scarlet Knights a comfortable lead. The Tigers finished with a 48.150 behind Rutgers’ 48.825.

The highlight for the Tigers on the beam was Davis’s 9.725 routine. Davis and Russell, two of Towson’s three upperclassmen, scored above 9.700 in five routines combined.

“[Britney and Alexa] definitely have the experience that the freshmen and sophomores don’t have and it certainly helps,” Chliszczyk said.

The Tigers’ fourth rotation was the floor exercise, in which the team tallied a 48.825 team score. Russell and sophomore Lauren Ross led Towson with 9.800 scores.

Rutgers recorded a meet-high team score on floor, finishing with a 49.175. Junior Luisa Leal earned a 9.950 on her routine, good for first place overall.

“We’ve got three more meets and I think we can continue to get high scores if we continue to be confident,” Chliszczyk said. “If we hit our routines and score high we can move up.”

Towson will host its second straight meet when it faces George Washington, Southern Connecticut and West Chester Friday, March 16 at the Towson Center. It will be the last sporting event held at the arena.