UCLA gymnasts stick to landing a spot in NCAA Tournament ahead of Stanford meet, despite early-season losing streak
Redshirt senior Brittani McCullough and the UCLA gymnastics team will face Stanford on the road Sunday.
Correction: The original version of this photo misidentified senior gymnast Brittani McCullough as freshman gymnast Olivia Courtney.
Gymnastics
Stanford
Sunday, 2 p.m.
Stanford, Calif.
No TV
UCLA heads north to face a Stanford squad that was the only team to best the Bruins at the Pac-10 Preview.
By Patricia Lee
Jan. 21, 2011 2:11 a.m.
In gymnastics, the win-loss record does not really matter when it comes to qualifying for the NCAA Tournament. The only thing that holds weight is the season average.
That does not mean that this UCLA team ““ which has dropped in the polls from No. 1 to No. 8 after three early-season losses ““ does not want to beat No. 2 Stanford on Sunday.
UCLA has a season team average of 195.217, compared to Stanford’s 196.625, and could make up ground with a win Sunday.
“This team has not found its identity yet,” coach Valorie Kondos Field said. “And I wanted to know what our depth was going into the last meet. I saw who is ready to come in. I saw on which events they are ready to come in. Being able to see that, and conversely, being able to see the athletes that crumbled under pressure, was important for me. I have to figure out a way to make them compete better.”
The Bruins have already faced the Cardinal once this year ““ at the Pac-10 Showcase at Pauley Pavilion. That meet was Stanford’s only competition on the season, and the Cardinal finished first while the Bruins came in second.
Stanford also beat UCLA last year at Pauley Pavilion, 195.975-195.625, as a result of the Bruins’ errors on the balance beam and out-of-bounds deductions on the floor exercise.
During their last meet at Southern Utah, the Bruins had poor performances on the uneven bars and the floor exercises, but had a great showing from freshman Olivia Courtney, who was the first-ever freshman to win the all-around, though she isn’t dwelling on that last performance.
“I put that last meet behind me because it is in the past,” Courtney said. “I went (to) the gym and trained hard. Even though I won the all-around, I still made a lot of mistakes and I want to fix them. I want to get better.”
Kondos Field held several team meetings since the team’s loss to Southern Utah to evaluate the past few weeks of competition ““ from their practices, to their warm-ups, to their actual performances at the meets.
“We had a team meeting to get our heads back on straight and get back on the right road again,” senior Mizuki Sato said. “And in practice, we’ve been making sure to get on each other’s backs. … No more mediocrity, pointing out the little things, perfecting fine details … and just remembering that gymnastics is actually fun.”
Kondos Field is confident that the team will be able to improve this season.
“We start slowly and we build and peak at the right time,” Kondos Field said. “The plan is to peak in March and April. The plan is not to go out and perform poorly. But I am not concerned about where our team is at or where we are going.”
