Only a few feet, two feet to be exact, kept the gymnastics team from toppling its highest ranked opponent of the year on Friday.

Junior Leigha Hancock and sophomore Ashley Shepard each stepped just on the out-of-bounds line during their respective floor routines costing one-tenth of a point each from the total team score. Each deduction proved to be more than the difference as the team fell just .025 short of beating No. 15 Arizona.

Coach Mark Stevenson hinted he was none too worried about the missteps due to the degree of difficulty involved.

“They landed, and they took a step backwards. And they put their foot on the line and that cost us two-tenths right there,” Stevenson said. “But it’s hard to complain when they go big. You can get mad as a coach when they go small, and they land on their face or something. But they were flying high.”

Even with the one-tenth deductions, Shepard finished with a 9.8 and Hancock with a 9.775.

“They were wonderful routines, but they just accidentally stepped out of bounds,” Stevenson said.

As for notching the best score of the year by about two full team points, Stevenson said it was due to the natural maturation his team has undergone as the season wears on.

“The team has just gotten to the point where they know what they’re doing, and they’re confident, and they know everything they’re doing in their practice,” Stevenson said. “It’s the first time this year where we did all our routines.”

Also at the meet were James Madison and William & Mary. William & Mary finished third, but it was nearly seven team points behind the Wolfpack.

State had three gymnasts finish in the top five in all-around score — a gymnast’s total score if she competes in all four events — as freshman Taylor Seaman, junior Heather Zolton and junior Kelsey Lee finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

The beam and floor events yielded the highest scores for the Pack, as the team secured a 49.15 on each. It also kept close to that pace, getting a 49.00 on the vault. The scores were somewhat uncharacteristic as the team tends to do better on vault than beam.

“The vault’s a good event for us to start with,” Stevenson said. “Beam is the event we’ve struggled in over the last few weeks, and we had a great meet [on Friday]. Every one of the kids did their routine, and they didn’t just do it — they did it really well. They made it look easy.”

Placing first on beam with a 9.9 was junior Leigha Hancock, a two-time EAGL specialist of the week this season.

Also, senior Rachel Katz tied for first in the floor routine with a 9.875.

The Pack has two meets remaining on the schedule, one home and one away, before it begins EAGL championships on March 30.