Monday, January 27, 1997
GYMNASTICS:
Upset due in part to coach’s, All-American’s absenceBy Lisa
Quon
Daily Bruin Contributor
After last week’s easy win over Stanford, the UCLA women’s
gymnastics team felt confident going into Friday night’s matchup
against 10th-ranked Arizona State.
Although UCLA performed like national champion contenders, they
were unable to stop ASU from engineering a surprise upset and
outscoring the Bruins 195.1 to 194.45.
UCLA simply could not overcome the many setbacks which plagued
them before the competition. Absent from the meet were two of
UCLA’s mainstays, head coach Valerie Kondos and four- time
All-American junior Stella Umeh.
Kondos was unable to attend the meet due to sickness, and Umeh
was out for the second meet in a row with a nagging shoulder
injury.
In front of a crowd of almost 1,500 fans, the Sun Devils gave
steady performances in every event. They swept the floor exercises,
with their gymnasts finishing in the top three spots.
"We just had an off night on floor," senior Amy Smith said.
"It’s okay though, because our philosophy is just to get the blocks
out of the way now, because scores don’t matter until regionals and
nationals."
This was a big victory for the Sun Devils, who not only defeated
one of the nation’s top-ranked teams, but also improved their score
by over three points from a 191.7 loss against Oregon State last
week.
Despite the Bruin loss, the team still feels it performed
well.
"A lot of good things happened to us on Friday," freshman
Deborah Mink said. "We had our highest beam score of the
season."
Leading the Sun Devils to victory was All-American Meagan
Wright, who won her first all-around with a 39.2. Wright also
placed first on vault for the second week in a row, scoring a
9.925.
Senior Leah Homma led the Bruins with two first-place showings,
scoring a 9.9 on bars and a 9.875 on beam.
With a score of 38.8, sophomore Kiralee Hayashi placed second in
the all-around. Freshman Heidi Moneymaker, who has been a steady
competitor for UCLA all season, finished third with a 38.675.
The Bruins still lead the overall series against ASU 23-19, but
they also lost last year’s meet in Tempe by the narrow margin of
195.625 to 195.3.
This loss is only a minor setback for UCLA, as they prepare for
this Saturday’s big invitational meet at Pauley Pavilion. The
Bruins, who will host LSU, California and UC Santa Barbara, are
really looking forward to the meet.
"It’s always nice to be at home, because that’s usually when you
do your best," Amy Smith said. "But our main concern is just to go
out there and have a good time."
UCLA Sports Info
Kiralee Hayashi finished second in the all-around Friday.