Clutch performance propels Bruin gymnasts past Beavers

As No. 6 UCLA gymnastics entered the last rotation of Sunday’s meet against No. 14 Oregon State , the Beavers had cut the Bruins’ lead to .525.

After uncharacteristic falls plagued the Bruins on beam and allowed the Beavers to close the gap, the UCLA team needed its performance on floor to be error-free to slip away with a win.

Buoyed by the strong attendance in Pauley Pavilion, UCLA (1-1) fed off the crowd to pull off an eight-tenths of a point win over Oregon State (1-1) in a rematch of last year’s Pac-12 title game.

Despite a pair of falls on balance beam and an atypical number of large deductions on some athlete’s events, coach Valorie Kondos Field said the issues that she saw were the some of the best the team could have.

“I was actually really pleased with them,” Kondos Field said. “I know it didn’t look like we did well on beam but from my perspective, they did really well because we had two falls. But for the most part, they didn’t wobble, they didn’t look nervous up there.”

Two Bruins who were originally expected to compete were held from competing on Saturday because of soreness that the coaches worried could manifest into more serious injuries. While senior Olivia Courtney competed in all of her events except floor, redshirt junior Samantha Peszek did not compete at all.

Their absences were negated by the standout performance of senior Sydney Sawa, who managed the highest score of the night on both floor and vault and, despite being subbed in at the last minute, tied for the second highest score on uneven bars.

It was on floor where the senior’s confidence shone through most – her face was nothing but smiles as she threw herself through a routine that earned a 10 from one of the two judges.

“Floor has always been one of those events that I tend to feel confident on,” Sawa said. “Looking up and looking into the crowd, making eye contact to get that little extra something is huge.”

Another Bruin to bask in the cheers of the crowd was freshman Angi Cipra, who also earned a 10 from one judge in only her second competition as a Bruin.

“I did three events this time around, which was new to me,” Cipra said. “I started on vault, which I guess you could say is kind of my easier event, it’s my rock. … Then we headed over to floor and we proceeded to have what (associate head coach) Chris (Waller) calls ‘our floor dance party.’”

And it was that “floor dance party” that ultimately pushed the Bruins over the top, Kondos Field said.

“Oregon State will always come in prepared; they had uncharacteristic falls today but you can always count on them to come in prepared,” Kondos Field said. “If we didn’t come back and do well on floor, we would have lost the meet.”