W. Gymnastics prepares for West regionals

Wednesday, April 10, 1996

Ranked No. 10 in poll, Bruins hope to maximize home court
advantageBy Esther Hui

Daily Bruin Staff

Sophomore Stella Umeh will not be competing in this weekend’s
NCAA West Regional Championships after breaking her foot Monday in
practice.

Umeh, who has consistently been one of the Bruins top-two
all-arounders this season, was diagnosed with an inner ear
infection last week and took a few days off, as the infection was
dizzying and had been affecting her balance, especially on
beam.

Umeh returned to practice on Monday, and attempted her round-off
layout step out mount on beam but miscalculated and landed wrong on
her foot. She may be able to return for the NCAA championships at
the end of April, but will not contribute to the team’s effort in
qualifying this weekend.

* * *

The Bruins are seeded second in the West Region to Oregon State,
but hope to use the home court advantage in their quest to continue
a three-year NCAA Regional winning streak. The Regional, which is
probably the biggest meet for the Bruins this season outside of the
National Championships, will be held this Saturday at 6 p.m. in
Pauley Pavilion.

"We’re really excited to host West Regionals," UCLA head coach
Valorie Kondos said. "It’s going to be a great competition. It’s
exactly like the first round of NCAA basketball, the ‘Best of the
West.’"

The winner of each of the five regions will automatically
advance to the NCAA championships, with the next seven highest team
scores in the country receiving provisional bids. With so much
parity this year nationwide between teams, a second-place team
finish cannot be taken for granted as a qualification.

UCLA has dominated the West Region in recent years and beat
Oregon State at home earlier this season. But the Bruins faltered
on beam at the Pacific 10 championships March 23, falling to fourth
place behind first place Oregon State, Arizona and Arizona State,
which gave the Beavers a coveted first seed for Regionals.

The Beavers will even be bringing their band to try to combat
UCLA’s home advantage, which could make for a raucous evening,
despite the fact that the Bruin Pep Band has opted not to show.

"We know we’re underdogs," Leah Homma said. "We’ll try to build
up quietly, not go for a huge impression. I’m a little nervous, and
I don’t compete as well when I’m nervous, so I’m trying not to
think about it.

"Optimally, we would want to win the meet, but if we don’t
succeed, then we’ll want a really high score to qualify for
nationals."

The Bruins have seemed to perform better in lower pressure
situations this season. A case in point was the following of the
fourth place finish at Pac-10s with a season-high in a low-hype
dual meet with BYU. Most rules won’t apply this weekend with an
NCAA berth on the line.

"We learned something from that meet," Corinne Chee said of the
team’s performance at the 1996 Pac-10 championships. "We’ll do
better under pressure than we have in the past. This whole season
has been a series of ups and downs, but we know now that we need to
get that focus right at the beginning and not let the downward
trend happen."

* * *

In the most recent poll, UCLA is ranked No. 10 in the nation
behind top-ranked Georgia, No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Utah. The only
West Regional school ahead of UCLA is No. 6 Oregon State. The next
highest West Regional school is No. 19 Stanford.

ANDREW SCHOLER /Daily Bruin

After breaking her foot Monday, Stella Umeh will not compete
this weekend.