By Jerry Hill Baylor Bear Foundation

Needing just one point out of the last three rides, Baylor's third-seeded equestrian team came up empty and lost to sixth-seeded TCU by the slimmest possible margin in the NCEA National Championship quarterfinals Friday afternoon.

Swept in the two regular-season matchups, TCU (8-8) rallied from an 8-5 deficit and claimed the last three points in horsemanship to tie it at 8-8 and win the scoring tiebreaker by just 16.5 points, 2493.8-2477.5. While the Horned Frogs advance to Saturday's semifinals to face second-seeded Georgia, the Bears finish the year at 13-5.

"It's going to be tough tomorrow to see TCU do what we were hoping and should be out there doing," said junior All-American Alicia Gasser, who swept her Hunter Seat rides on flat and over fences. "It's tough, very tough. Today definitely didn't go as planned, as we had hoped. Really, our losses came from mistakes."

Friday's loss was particularly hard on senior Mary Brown, who picked up the Bears' only horsemanship point with a 151-point ride on Bones.

"It's usually our strongest event. I'm not sure what happened," Brown said. "We didn't come through the way we normally do, and instead it turned out that way."

Just a year ago, Baylor swept the four horsemanship rides and rallied to beat Oklahoma State on the points tiebreaker. But this time, it was TCU that had a 3-1 edge in horsemanship, with Megan McMullen edging BU freshman Abbi Demel (153-151) and Rylee Morgan beating Bray Bergstrom (150.5-149).

Kaylee Mellott, another freshman, scored a 140 on a re-ride and lost to TCU's Marah Huston (151.5).

"She only had two minutes to ride it and didn't really have her head in the game because it was happening so fast with the re-ride," Baylor coach Ellen White said. "At the end of the day, it wasn't like we rode badly and lost, we just got outridden a little bit."

Baylor started the day on a high, taking the early 3-1 lead with points in equitation on the flat from Rachel Van Allen (159), Savannah Jenkins (145) and Gasser (150). The Bears had a 5-3 lead at the halfway mark with winning rides from Brown (141.5) and Ginger Chant (136) in reining.

TCU tied it at 5-5 in the fences arena with Molly Peddicord (162) and Nikki Diamantis (163) beating Jenkins (157) and Brittney Mirkov (150), respectively. Gasser (159) and Paige Parker (162) put the Bears back up by two, 7-5, but the Frogs finished with a flurry.

"If you make a mistake at this level, you're done," White said. "It's like a free throw in basketball. Sometiimes, it comes down to you miss your free throw and you're done. That's kind of where we are."

In Friday's other quarterfinals at the Extraco Events Center, Georgia rolled over 10th-seeded SMU, 12-4; top-seeded Auburn dominated No. 8 seed Kansas state, 15-1; and fifth-seeded Texas A&M upset No. 4 seed Oklahoma State, 11-5.

Saturday's semifinals begin at 8:30 a.m. and will pit Georgia vs. TCU and Auburn vs. Texas A&M, with the winners meeting in the final at 1 p.m.

"There are things we would change from today," Gasser said, "but I still believe we're national championship-quality. We need to carry that on to next year and fix our mistakes. Hopefully, it will be different for us."

WACO, Texas -- No. 3 Baylor equestrian (13-5) season came to an end in dramatic fashion, falling in the quarterfinals of the NCEA National Championship to No. 6 TCU (7-8), 8-8 (2493.8-2477.5) on a raw score tiebreaker. BU took an early lead after winning equitation on the flat, 3-1. Alicia Gasser defeated Kari Hancock, 150-142, Savannah Jenkins defeated Nikki Diamantis, 145-136, and Rachel Van Allen defeated Jayme Omand, 159-148.

In reining and fences, the two sides were square, tying both events, 2-2.

In reining, Ginger Chant defeated Hunter De Jane, 136-132, and Mary Brown defeated Meloney Morris, 141.5-140.5.

Going into fences, TCU started to make a comeback by earning the first two points of the ride until Paige Parker defeated Carley Barnett, 162-143, and Gasser defeated Omand, 159-152.

Leading through the first three events, 7-5, the two squads headed into horsemanship with a trip to the semifinals on the line.

Brown won the first point of the event by defeating Erin Gillette, 151-149. BU needed just one more point to clinch the meet, but the Horned Frogs would go on to sweep the remaining points. Winning the event, 3-1, and tying the contest at 8-8, TCU would edge the Bears on the raw score tiebreaker, adjusted down to just a 16.3-point margin.

STAT OF THE MEET #1 20 - the number of total points Mary Brown earned during her senior season at Baylor.

STAT OF THE MEET #2 0.7% - the margin of victory for TCU in the raw score tiebreaker, with the western equivalency tiebreaker adjustment.

TOP QUOTES Coach Ellen White On the season ending on a tie... "If I am going to lose, I'd rather lose on a tie than a landslide. I just don't want to lose. There is no easy way to lose."

Mary Brown On her successful rides... "I won both my points in the two events. It was a good last ride for me, but I would like to be competing again tomorrow."

Alicia Gasser On the meet... "Our loss came from mistakes. I think we had some great rides and some very fixable rides. We came into here with a great mindset as a team. We were ready to go, everyone looked great, riding yesterday. Practice this morning, everyone was on point and we started really strong. The mistakes caught on to us. TCU is a great team, they are good competitors. We opened the door for them and their talent walked by us. It is disappointing, coming all the way and then ending the chance we get to be in the ring. From here, we just take what we can and learn from what happened; use that for next year and thank our seniors for everything they have done for us these past four years. It is disappointing, but I am still proud of being part of this team, being able to represent Baylor, being out here, and being able to ride these horses."

WHAT'S NEXT With Baylor's season concluding on Friday afternoon, the Bears will be back in competition in the fall of 2016.

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