UCLA gymnastics prepares for home meet against Washington
Junior Savannah Kooyman said that as No. 3 UCLA gymnastics prepares to face No. 11 Washington on Friday night, the Bruins will look to keep their mental toughness during each of the four events.(Andy Bao/Daily Bruin)
Gymnastics
No. 11 Washington
Friday, 7 p.m.
Pauley Pavilion
Pac-12 Networks
By Cassidy Hunt
Jan. 31, 2020 1:36 a.m.
The Bruins are preparing to face their second Pac-12 opponent Friday.
No. 3 UCLA gymnastics (3-0, 1-0 Pac-12) will return home to Pauley Pavilion to face off against No. 11 Washington (2-0, 1-0) on Friday night after beginning conference play against Stanford on Monday. The Huskies will be the Bruins’ highest-ranked opponent since their season-opener four weeks ago.
“Washington’s looking good,” said coach Chris Waller. “We definitely respect them, they’re a great program, and they’re coming up. But we have our own plan and our trajectory is mapped out – we are just going to keep ratcheting it up and we’ll have a great meet.”
Washington has improved its uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise rankings in each of its three meets this season and is currently ranked No. 8 in the nation on floor.
The Bruins – who are ranked No. 1 nationally on floor exercise – and the Huskies both scored 49.425 on floor two weeks ago and 49.475 last week.
Washington also owns a No. 10 ranking on uneven bars, though its highest score on the event so far this season is 49.225, while UCLA has never dipped below a 49.375.
The Bruins are currently ranked No. 2 on uneven bars and No. 4 on vault.
Washington outranks UCLA on only one event – balance beam. The Bruins posted sub-49 scores on balance beam two weeks in a row to start their season and are currently ranked No. 27 on the event, while the Huskies hold the No. 23 spot.
Junior Savannah Kooyman said UCLA will be focusing on its mental toughness as it prepares to face Washington on all four events.
“We are trying to keep our energy high at every meet,” Kooyman said. “We are just taking that same mentality into this next meet. We all know how to do all of our routines – we just need to be there mentally and focus to do well.”
Washington won both of its dual meets this season against Boise State and No. 10 California, which the Huskies upset with a team score improvement of almost a whole point.
The Bruins have faced both of these opponents already this season, scoring .375 higher than the Golden Bears en route to a second-place finish at the Collegiate Challenge on Jan. 4 and outscoring the Broncos by 1.325 the following week at UCLA’s home opener in Westwood. However, both teams did outscore the Bruins on balance beam.
UCLA has been on the road for two weeks and hasn’t competed at Pauley Pavilion since its win over Boise State.
Junior Nia Dennis said the Bruins are eager to get back on the floor in front of a home crowd.
“We’re really happy to be home,” Dennis said. “We know a lot of people on campus are really excited to see us compete, so the energy is going to be really high, so we can feed off of that and show a bunch of love to everybody.”
UCLA will meet Washington at Pauley Pavilion on Friday at 7 p.m.
