A week after defeating SEC rival Georgia, the fifth-ranked UCLA gymnastics team will head to the South to take on fourth-ranked Alabama in yet another dual meet against the SEC.
The Bruins are coming off of their best performance of the season, posting a season-high team score of 197.15.
The team had a tremendous meet, as every gymnast stepped up and contributed significantly to defeat the defending national champions.
“We had a great meet last week and it got us excited,” coach Valorie Kondos Field said. “Coming off of a win like that and now going to another SEC powerhouse makes it lots of fun.”
However, this week the environment will be different. Gymnastics is no light matter for the SEC and the team will be competing in front of a hostile crowd, far different from the enthusiastic crowd at Pauley Pavilion last week.
But the team is hitting its stride as it approaches the end of its season. Last week’s performance moved the Bruins up one spot in the national rankings. Individually, junior Tasha Schwikert is ranked sixth in the overall and freshman Anna Li is ranked 13th.
Schwikert has been limited the last couple weeks due to injury, but Li has been the one constant for the injury-plagued team.
Li has competed in the all-around in every single meet this year and is the only Bruin to have performed on every event in every meet this year. She ranks second on the team in top-three finishes with 21 and has truly excelled as a freshman.
Also making a strong comeback for the team is junior Jordan Schwikert. After struggling early in the season with a hamstring injury, she has had two solid all-around performances, including a season best of 39.425 against Georgia last week.
“My goal is to get a 9.9 on every event so I still have work to do (that),” Jordan Schwikert said. “I know it wasn’t my best meet ever and I have more potential.”
As the Bruins head to Alabama, they will face yet another difficult test. Alabama has long been a gymnastics powerhouse with four NCAA championships and a star-studded lineup of their own. The Crimson Tide is led by Olympic double-medalist Terin Humphrey, and they are a team the Bruins will likely see again in April.
“The team is just that much more excited to go up against a team (like Alabama) and compete in front of a different crowd,” Kondos Field said. “Any time there is any type of difference in the crowd, it gets the girls more pumped up and more excited.”
With such a big meet ahead, the Bruins have a lot to prove. They want to prove to themselves that last week was no fluke, and as they head into the postseason, the Bruins will look to establish themselves as one of the elite teams.