Around the League: Pac-12 sees battles for top spot in gymnastics, women’s basketball
(Amy Dixon/Photo editor)
Gymnastics
Angie Forburger, assistant Sports editor
Three matchups between ranked Pac-12 gymnastics programs are slated for this week.
No. 4 Utah (2-0, 0-0 Pac-12) is set to travel to No. 21 Oregon State (3-0, 0-0) on Saturday. The Utes defeated the Penn State Nittany Lions before taking down in-state rival the No. 6 BYU Cougars on Friday. Oregon State opened their season Sunday with a first-place win at a quad meet against Illinois, No. 16 Kentucky and Lindenwood.
No. 19 Arizona State (3-1, 0-0) is heading to Westwood on Monday to face No. 2 UCLA (4-0, 1-0). The Sun Devils are coming off a win at Texas Woman’s University, earning their best score so far this season with a 195.675. The Bruins finished first in the Collegiate Challenge on Saturday, scoring two perfect 10s.
No. 24 Stanford (5-0, 0-0) is taking on No. 12 California (2-2, 0-1) on Monday. Stanford earned its second first-place finish of the year in a tri-meet against Sacramento State and Seattle Pacific on Friday. The Golden Bears finished in second place behind the Bruins at the Collegiate Challenge after falling to the No. 5 LSU Tigers to open their season.
No. 20 Washington (0-1, 0-0) will compete at home against Arizona (2-2, 0-0) on Friday. The Huskies fell to No. 15 Nebraska in their season-opening meet by just over a quarter of a point. After finishing second in a quad meet against Central Michigan, Illinois and Bridgeport, Arizona fell to No. 14 Arkansas on Saturday.
The teams have just over two months until the Pac-12 championships.
Women’s basketball
Joy Hong, assistant Sports editor
Three Pac-12 women’s basketball teams are still undefeated in conference play.
No. 5 Oregon (15-1, 4-0 Pac-12), No. 6 Stanford (14-1, 4-0) and No. 10 Oregon State (14-2, 4-0) sit at the top of the conference standings after two weeks of Pac-12 competition.
The two Oregon schools are fresh off of sweeps over UCLA (9-8, 2-3) and USC (10-6, 0-5) and will both face No. 19 Arizona State (12-4, 3-2) and Arizona (13-3, 3-2) this weekend.
The Sun Devils and the Wildcats both defeated then-No. 24 California (10-5, 1-3), as the Golden Bears were swept at home last weekend and fell out of the rankings for the first time this season.
The Bruins and the Trojans will clash for their second rivalry game of the season at Pauley Pavilion on Sunday afternoon. UCLA will have the opportunity to complete the sweep while USC will have the opportunity to notch its first conference win.
Utah (15-1, 4-1) has yet to crack the top 25 this season but sits right behind Oregon, Stanford and Oregon State in the Pac-12 standings.
Utah will host Colorado (10-6, 0-5) on Friday, while Washington (8-9, 1-4) and Washington State (7-9, 2-3) will visit Cal and Stanford this weekend.
Men’s volleyball
Gabriel McCarthy, assistant Sports editor
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation has not commenced conference play, but a number of teams are a few matches into the season.
No. 6 UCLA men’s volleyball (5-1) completed a two-game sweep of unranked McKendree and Lindenwood on its trip to the Midwest last week.
No. 4 BYU (2-0) kicked off the regular season with a sweep of then-No. 7 Ohio State before sweeping then-No. 14 Ball State. The Cougars are led in kills by opposite Gabi Garcia Fernandez, with 31.
No. 5 Pepperdine (4-0) has opened the season with wins over Princeton, UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara, twice.
Unranked Concordia (0-6) has started the season getting swept in four of its six games. The Eagles’ closest match was a five-set finish against unranked NJIT.
No. 15 Grand Canyon (3-2) was swept by Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara in its first two games of the season but has won three games in a row, including a 3-2 win over CSUN – which swept UCLA.
Unranked USC (2-1) defeated Concordia and NJIT, but was swept by Hawai’i in its third match of the season.
No. 9 Stanford (4-0) posted three straight sweeps over Menlo, UC Santa Cruz and then-No. 14 Ball State. The Cardinal bested the Ohio State Buckeyes 3-1 at home to continue their unbeaten run and are led in kills by opposite Jaylen Jasper, who has 47 and has hit for .386.
