Gymnasts hope to balance out scores
By Daily Bruin Staff
March 7, 1996 9:00 p.m.
Gymnasts hope to balance out scores
UCLA faces ASU in dual competition
By Esther Hui
Daily Bruin Staff
It would seem that the UCLA and Arizona State women’s gymnastics
teams are pretty evenly matched for tonight’s dual competition
between the No. 8 Bruins and the No. 12 Sun Devils in Tempe.
Both teams have had bouts with inconsistency this season. UCLA
dropped two of its first three meets of the season, but battled
back to be ranked as high as No. 5 in the country in recent weeks
after scoring a 195.100 in a triangular home meet.
Likewise, ASU opened with a 189.350, but catapulted into the
limelight with a 195.850 to win the Sun Devil Classic in
February.
And while relatively close in the national rankings, both
Pacific 10 teams have winning streaks to continue, which makes
tonight’s competition even more interesting. The Bruins have four
straight wins and the Sun Devils three.
"I talked to Arizona State’s head coach (John Spini) this
morning," UCLA head coach Valorie Kondos said. "He said he feels
they’re a legitimate 194 team, and they could go 195 or could drop
to 192. I feel really good going in, the team knows they’re heading
into the big part of the season."
For the UCLA gymnasts the most important thing about this
weekend isn’t a win, but a solid team score at an away meet to
factor into the regional average. UCLA’s average home score this
year has been 194.710, while the away scores average about
192.280.
Though a large reason for the disparity is that most of the
recent competitions have been at home, there are still only three
meets left to bring the average up before the West Regional
qualifier.
"We’re really psyched up," UCLA’s Leah Homma said. "I don’t know
what to expect. We know we have to get a good score to be seeded
high for West Regionals."
Tonight’s competition will be the Bruins’ last matchup with a
conference team before the Pac-10 championships in Oregon. UCLA,
the defending Pac-10 champion, won last year’s conference in the
same Arizona venue as tonight’s meet, a fact which Kondos hopes
will prove inspirational tonight.
"The gymnasts are ready," Kondos said. "They’re rested, they’ve
competed well, they’re confident and they don’t like to
lose."Comments to [email protected]
