No. 3 UCLA gymnastics returns to Pauley Pavilion on Sunday for its final regular-season home meet, facing former Pac-12 foe No. 12 Stanford. Daily Bruin staffer Samantha Garcia breaks down the Cardinal ahead of Sunday’s showdown.

Stanford
Ranking: 12
Strength: Floor
Weakness: Vault
X-Factor: Brenna Neault

The Bruins’ nightmare at last year’s NCAA regionals was a dream come true for the Cardinal. While upsets from Denver and Arizona State sent UCLA packing, Chloe Widner’s first career perfect score on floor sent Stanford to the NCAA championships for the first time since 2016.

The Cardinal were expecting to bolster their 2025 lineups with the addition of 2024 Paris Olympian Levi Jung-Ruivivar, who represented the Philippines alongside Bruin senior Emma Malabuyo. However, Jung-Ruivivar opted to redshirt this season to recover from an eating disorder.

Stanford is capable of returning to the national championships this year – boasting its highest week 9 all-around ranking since 2014, when the squad made its third consecutive appearance at nationals.

The Cardinal are led by Brenna Neault, who has competed in the all-around in all eight of their meets this season. The No. 18-ranked beam worker has scored her 9.950 career high twice this year and won her third beam title of the season at a home quad meet Feb. 28. But Neault has also struggled with consistency on the event, notching a career-low 9.250 mark against North Carolina and a 9.725 against Clemson earlier this season.

Making up for Neault’s uncharacteristically low beam score, Anna Roberts scored a 9.900 or higher on vault, bars and floor against the Tigers – earning her second ACC weekly award. Statistically, vault is the Cardinal’s worst event, but Roberts – the ACC’s No. 1 vaulter – has contributed at least a 9.900 on the apparatus in five of Stanford’s eight meets.

Sienna Robinson is the only other Cardinal to bring home an ACC Specialist of the Week award this season, notching the honor Jan. 21 and Feb. 4. Robinson and Roberts – the latter of whom is the 2024 NCAA regional floor champion – are also the top-ranked Stanford gymnasts on floor, averaging 9.856 and 9.878, respectively.

As a unit, the Cardinal rank No. 14 nationally on beam and floor. However, Stanford’s highest ranking is on bars as the nation’s No. 11 squad on the event.

Neault’s scores on the event gradually grew across four meets, going from a 9.725 on Jan. 26 to a 9.900 on Feb. 14. She earned her second 9.900 on bars of the season last week at the Feb. 28 quad to mark the Cardinal’s highest score on the event.

In addition to Neault, Roberts and Ui Soma are staples in Stanford’s bars lineup, as both members of the pair own an NQS higher than 9.850 on the event. Anchoring the Cardinal’s rotation and competing on three events for the first time in her career, Soma scored a career-high 9.950 to win the bars title against Clemson. The freshman also competed on beam and vault for Stanford and holds a career-high 9.825 and 9.850, respectively, on the events.