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Scouting Report: UCLA vs. California

(Rebekah Limb/Daily Bruin)

By Sam Settleman

March 4, 2021 2:54 p.m.

No. 10 UCLA gymnastics (5-1, 4-1 Pac-12) will head to the Bay Area to take on No. 9 California (4-1, 4-1). Will the Bruins finally put it all together and score a season high, or will the red-hot Golden Bears get their first win over UCLA since 2016? Here is this week’s scouting report by Sports contributor Sam Settleman – who would like to thank Twitter for teaching him everything he knows about gymnastics.

UCLA Bruins

Strength: Floor
Weakness: Beam
X-Factor: Nia Dennis

If the Bruins want to continue their upward trajectory in the rankings, they’ll need to put together high-level performances on all four events in the same day.

Combining UCLA’s season-high scores on each event yields a total score of 197.625, more than half a point better than any score the team has posted this season.

For the Bruins, the lack of consistency begins on bars and beam. UCLA ranks 14th and 15th on the apparatuses, respectively. If those rankings hold, the Bruins would finish outside of the top 10 on both events for the first time since 1999.

The rankings, however, do not reflect the potential of the bars and beam rotations.

Last weekend, the Bruins – who averaged a 49.060 on bars going into Saturday’s meet against Oregon State – exceeded their season high by more than four-tenths of a point. Not only was UCLA’s 49.550 on bars the third-highest score recorded by any team in the nation on bars this season, it would’ve also represented a season-best performance last season, when Olympians Kyla Ross and Madison Kocian led the Bruins to a No. 2 ranking on the event.

With UCLA’s bars lineup from last season graduating three seniors, freshman Sara Ulias has proven herself on the event. Ulias – whose skyscraping straddled Jaeger has been deemed one of the best in the NCAA – has recorded back-to-back career-highs on bars, scoring a 9.925 a week ago.

On the balance beam, the Bruins have lacked consistency both individually and as a team. In half of its meets, UCLA has recorded below a 49.000 on the event.

Junior Samantha Sakti’s high-flying acro series in the anchor spot led the transfer to a top-three ranking on the event early in the season, but falls in two consecutive meets prompted a lineup change. Since slotting into the second spot behind senior Kendal Poston in the leadoff, Sakti has recorded her third and fourth 9.900-or-higher scores of the season and returned to No. 15 in the beam rankings.

While UCLA’s bars and beam rotations consistently reaching their potentials would be a welcome sight for the Bruins, the team’s hopes of toppling the Bears hinge on the all-around performances of freshman Chae Campbell, junior Margzetta Frazier and senior Nia Dennis.

Campbell – who has exceeded expectations in her freshman campaign by totaling eight event wins in six meets – leads the Bruins with a 9.905 average on floor to pair with three all-around scores at or above 39.375. Frazier, the lone UCLA gymnast to compete in the all-around in all six meets, has improved her all-around score every time out, culminating in a career-high-tying 39.550 a week ago.

With Campbell and Frazier recording career-high all-around performances in recent weeks and both ranking in the top 25 in the nation as all-arounders, the Bruins will need a similar resurgence from Dennis. The senior has tallied 43 9.900-or-higher scores in her four-year career, but has only competed in the all-around once all season and is averaging below a 9.800 on floor in the last two meets after her viral routine earned 9.900-or-higher scores in three consecutive meets to open the season.

Following offseason shoulder surgery, Dennis recorded a career-high-tying 9.950 on bars last weekend. If the senior can return to form on floor and find consistency on beam, the Bruins will have one of the most dangerous all-around trios in the country in Campbell, Frazier and Dennis.

California Golden Bears

Strength: Beam
Weakness: Floor
X-Factor: Kyana George

In their first meet of the season, the Bears posted their first score below 196 in more than a year. Three meets later, they recorded the fourth best score in program history – a 197.425.

Like UCLA, Cal’s ascension into the top 10 has been headlined by a pair of all-arounders in All-American Kyana George and 2020 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Nevaeh DeSouza. George ranks 12th in the country in the all-around, while DeSouza is close behind at No. 16.

Entering last week’s showdown against No. 4 Utah, George paced the Bears on all but one event. In 20 routines this year, the senior has posted a score below 9.800 only three times.

George and DeSouza are the only Bears to score a 9.900 on floor, where the team ranks a team-worst 18th in the country. This is the fourth consecutive year Cal’s worst event has been floor.

Despite the Bears lacking the attention-grabbing, high-scoring potential on floor, they have been remarkably consistent, scoring a 49.200 or better on 12 consecutive events.

Perhaps most integral to Cal’s recent success has been the performance of Andi Li. After starting her collegiate campaign with three consecutive scores at or below 9.700, Li has recorded 10 scores in a row at or above 9.800 across three different events.

In the Bears’ first three meets, George and DeSouza combined for 8-of-10 of the team’s 9.900-or-higher scores. Since then, the duo accounts for just over 40% of Cal’s 9.900-or-higher scores.

Cal will need its supporting cast to continue its upward trend to put together its fourth consecutive team score over 197. If UCLA’s trio of all-arounders can outduel the potent duo of George and DeSouza, however, the Bruins will be in prime position to take down a surging Bears squad.

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Sam Settleman | Sports editor
Settleman was the 2022-2023 Sports editor on the football, men's basketball and gymnastics beats. He was previously an assistant editor on the gymnastics, women's soccer, women's golf, men's water polo and women's water polo beats and a contributor on the gymnastics and women's water polo beats.
Settleman was the 2022-2023 Sports editor on the football, men's basketball and gymnastics beats. He was previously an assistant editor on the gymnastics, women's soccer, women's golf, men's water polo and women's water polo beats and a contributor on the gymnastics and women's water polo beats.
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