After the first two rotations on Friday, the UCLA women’s
gymnastics team was virtually neck and neck with Stanford as the
Bruins took to the one event that surprisingly has given them the
most trouble this season ““ the floor exercise.
But that all changed Friday as the Bruins posted their second
impressive score on the floor in as many weeks, using what was
typically their weakest event to pull away for a 196.3-194.625
victory at Maples Pavilion.
As Stanford tripped its way across the beam to a score of just
47.55, UCLA sensed weakness and began its attack.
Bruin senior Christie Tedmon started the floor rotation with a
strong score of 9.750, which all of her scoring teammates would
improve upon. Tasha Schwikert went on to score a 9.775, her sister
Jordan Schwikert contributed a 9.850 and both Kristen Maloney and
Kate Richardson added 9.925s.
“That’s an area that they just had to have a little
more experience in,” UCLA coach Valorie Kondos Field said of
her team’s previous troubles on the floor. “Instead of
wondering if we can get to our feet, we know we can get to our
feet. Now it’s just a matter of how well we do
that.”
UCLA sealed the meet by posting a 48.775 on the beam, which
proved to be more than enough to keep the Cardinal out of
reach.
“The road victory was an important one for the
team,” said Kondos Field, whose team improved its Regional
Qualifying Score to 196.465 in the process. “I wanted them to
understand that there’s no offense and defense in
gymnastics.”
But UCLA’s comfort level was hard to gauge through the
first two rotations as the team was unable to pull away from a
relatively weak opponent. What was described as a raucous crowd of
Stanford supporters worked to throw the Bruin gymnasts off track, a
test Kondos Field says the team passed.
“The crowd was full of students and it was pretty tough,
but the more friction they gave us, the more we responded,”
she said.
Not only did Friday’s victory help to avenge last
season’s disappointing loss to the Cardinal, but it also
seemed to signal the team’s continued maturation process.
“I was thrilled with the way that the team responded on
Friday,” Kondos Field said. “The first four meets we
were playing not to lose, but (the UCLA gymnasts) have taken
ownership of their team and are playing to win now.”