As the fourth rotation came to a close, the UCLA gymnastics team eagerly waited for the announcement of the overall team totals. The competition remained tight down to the final gymnast as No. 5 Georgia narrowly defeated the No. 3 Bruins by a nail-biting margin of 0.025 in Athens, Ga.
Despite the disappointment of losing to the Bulldogs 197.90-197.875, the Bruins (9-3, 5-2 Pac-10) were in a celebratory mood after scoring their highest team total since 2004 as well as setting season-highs of 49.65 and 49.50 on balance beam and vault, respectively.
“It was frustrating to lose by so little because you come out and do your job and expect to win a meet,” coach Valorie Kondos Field said. “However, I would rather lose a meet with great performances than win a meet with poor routines so I would rather lose against Georgia having done a really great job.”
The Bruins led after the first two rotations, 98.80-98.775 but lost their advantage after faltering slightly on floor exercise, despite redshirt junior Brittani McCullough’s career-high matching 9.925. The Bulldogs boosted their beam score during the third rotation thanks to a 10.0 from senior Grace Taylor and three scores of 9.90.
UCLA countered the solid performance of Georgia (5-4, 3-3 SEC) on beam during their final rotation of the meet. Sophomore Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs recorded the second 10.0 of the night on beam, executing a perfect routine for the first time in her collegiate career. Hopfner-Hibbs’ 10.0 was the Bruins’ first on beam since Kate Richardson’s perfect score on Feb. 1, 2004.
“She is such a beautiful beam worker that it was long overdue,” Kondos Field said. “She has had a few routines that could have scored a 10.0 in the past year and a half, so it is so nice to see (the judges) finally give it to her.”
Junior Mizuki Sato also praised Hopfner-Hibbs’ perfect beam performance as “definitely one of the many highlights of the meet.” Sato, who scored a 9.950 on the apparatus, broke her own career record by a 10th of a point.
“It felt amazing. I don’t even think that my performance has hit me yet,” Sato said.
UCLA extended its individual success to the all-around with senior Anna Li and sophomore Vanessa Zamarripa tying their season-high scores of 39.575 and 39.675, respectively. Zamarripa won the individual all-around with Li coming in second.
Although the Bulldogs ultimately edged out the Bruins for the win, Kondos Field was satisfied with the team’s overall execution and attitude.
“We kept our courage and stayed in the moment from event to event,” she said. “They didn’t get too pumped up when we were ahead and they didn’t deflate when they saw Georgia getting great scores. We kept to our game plan.”
Hopfner-Hibbs echoed her coach’s positive outlook on Saturday’s performance.
“We had such a great meet and everyone did really well,” she said. “The whole competition was awesome because we had such high energy the entire time and we were able to just carry it through to the last event.”
The defeat will drop UCLA to 5-16 all-time against powerhouse Georgia, whose team total of 197.90 was a season-high. However, Kondos Field is less concerned with the loss than with improving UCLA’s overall performance as the postseason approaches. Saturday’s meet was the team’s last regular season away competition.
“The loss is not disappointing because we gave it our all so there are no regrets,” Sato said. “I guess we will just have to get (Georgia) next time but right now, we are all really happy with our performances so it doesn’t really feel like we lost.”