Gymnastics falls to Cal Bears in all events en route to historic loss
Redshirt senior Sadiqua Bynum and the UCLA gymnastics team fell to rival California in an upset loss Monday evening. (Angie Wang/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By Lea Chang
Feb. 2, 2016 7:33 a.m.
Gymnastics
| No. 5 UCLA | 195.175 |
| No. 21 California | 196.375 |
A rare night full of stumbles on bars and beam led to UCLA gymnastics’ historic loss to California on Monday. The No. 5 Bruins had previously trumped the No. 21 Golden Bears in every matchup since 1985, but their streak came to an end in a 196.375-195.175 loss in Berkeley.
“We were flat,” said coach Valorie Kondos Field. “We would have moments of greatness and then just never got back.”
UCLA (2-2) started faltering early in the meet, allowing Cal (2-2) to take an early lead.
Freshman Stella Savvidou lost her momentum twice on bars, registering a score of 8.750 – the lowest of the night’s competitors. Sophomore Sonya Meraz followed that performance with a fall of her own.
Kondos Field said that Meraz approached her routine boldly, not allowing Savvidou’s stumble to undermine her own ambitiousness. The result was another fall, but the Bruin coach was more proud than upset.
“Normally when someone falls, the next person up will play it safe, but (Meraz) didn’t hold back,” Kondos Field said. “She had a fall because she went hard, and if you’re going to make a mistake you’d rather it be because (you went) hard.”
Meraz attributed the overall lackluster nature of the Bruins’ performance to the early falls on bars.
“I think it was just a little hard to keep the momentum going afterwards,” she said.
Sophomore JaNay Honest, however, remained unfazed by her team’s unusually poor performance on bars, sticking her own landing in the event and earning a career high of 9.875.
“Tonight just wasn’t our night, (but) we didn’t let the mistakes define us,” Honest said. “You can choose to let these things mess with you, and I chose to not let those mistakes get me down.”
Other standout performances included junior Mikaela Gerber and senior Danusia Francis.
Gerber debuted her floor routine on Monday night, earning a score of 9.800. Her performance was what Kondos Field calls a “legacy routine,” pulled from a Bruin gymnast’s 2004 sequence.
A strong overall showing from Francis was highlighted by her 9.925 score on the beams.
“Danusia was last up on the beam, and her routine was really perfect,” Meraz said. “The team was really happy that we ended on that note.”
It wasn’t enough, though, to make a comeback.
UCLA, which had an upset win against Alabama and a conference takedown of Arizona under its belt, failed to capture any of Monday’s events. The team even fell in floor – the Bruins’ signature event in which they are ranked No. 1 nationally.
Despite its overall poor showing Monday, the gymnastics team was nothing if not positive.
“No one shut down – they kept fighting, kept believing,” Kondos Field said.
The Bruins look to learn from their mistakes against Cal in their upcoming conference meet against Utah on Saturday. If anything, the upset of Monday night has refocused the team.
“We’re more hungry for it,” Meraz said.
