UCLA
Arizona State
UCLA Travels to ASU for Desert Dual
February 01, 2017 | Gymnastics
#5 UCLA at Arizona State
Saturday, Feb. 4 - 1:30pm MT/2:30 pm PT
TV: Pac-12 Los Angeles (Jim Watson, Amanda Borden)
Live Stats: thesundevils.com
Twitter: @uclagymnastics
Bruins on the Road Again
UCLA (2-1, 1-0 in the Pac-12) will compete for the third-straight time away from home, traveling to Tempe, Ariz. to take on Arizona State (2-4, 0-1) on Saturday, Feb. 4. The meet will take place at Wells Fargo Arena and will be televised live on Pac-12 Los Angeles and Pac-12 Arizona at 1:30 pm MT/12:30pm PT. A delayed broadcast will air on Pac-12 National at 10pm PT. Jim Watson and Amanda Borden will be on the call.
Follow Live
Live stats will be available at thesundevils.com. Live updates can be found on Twitter: @UCLAGymnastics.
Perfection Reached
Freshman Kyla Ross, a member of the gold medal-winning 2012 U.S. Olympic team, earned the nation's first perfect 10 of the season on uneven bars at the Bruins' Jan. 28 meet at Oregon State. Ross achieved the perfect mark in the first rotation of the meet, hitting a powerful toe-on Shaposhnikova, precise handstands and sticking a double layout dismount. Her perfect 10 was the first by a Bruin since Danusia Francis scored a 10 on beam on Mar. 6, 2016 and UCLA's first perfect 10 on bars since Samantha Peszek in 2014.
Ross Named Pac-12 Freshman, Specialist of the Week
After her standout performance at Oregon State, Kyla Ross was awarded Pac-12 Freshman and Specialist of the Week honors. Ross earned career-high scores on all three events in which she competed, winning bars (10.0) and vault (9.925) and tying for fourth on beam (9.85). She is the first Pac-12 gymnast ever to win both Freshman and Specialist awards in the same week.
UCLA Scores Season-High in Win at OSU
Powered by a perfect 10 on bars from Kyla Ross and season-best team scores on bars and floor, UCLA earned a 197.325-196.700 victory at Oregon State. The Bruins scored 49.2 on all four events (49.225 on vault, 49.550 on bars, 49.35 on beam and 49.2 on floor) for the first time this season and bested its season-high team total by half a point. Ross won bars (10.0) and vault (9.925), Christine Peng-Peng Lee won beam (9.925), and Madison Kocian won the all-around with a career-high 39.525.
In the Rankings
UCLA moved up three spots to No. 5 in the nation with a season average of 196.617. The Bruins are ranked second on bars, fifth on vault, tied for seventh on beam and 23rd on floor. Kyla Ross ranks second on bars and 16th on vault. Madison Kocian is tied for seventh on beam and 12th on floor. Christine Peng-Peng Lee ranks fifth on bars, and Madison Preston is tied for ninth on vault and 21st on floor. Rankings are currently based on average score.
UCLA vs. Arizona State
Arizona State is coming off a season-high 193.575 set last weekend in a dual meet loss at California. The Sun Devils are coached by first-year head coach Jay Santos and led by senior Beka Conrad and junior transfer Nichelle Christopherson.
UCLA holds a 59-32 all-time record against Arizona State and has not lost to the Sun Devils since Jan. 26, 2001 in Tempe, a streak of 31 consecutive wins. The Bruins won both meetings last year, winning the dual meet in Pauley Pavilion, 196.625-192.950, and taking first place at the Pac-12 Championships.
Cipra Set to Return for Hometown Meet
Senior Angi Cipra is expected to make her season debut this weekend, just in time to make a hometown visit to Arizona State. Cipra, who hails from Mesa, Ariz. and trained at Desert Devils, missed the first three meets of the season with a foot sprain. She is coming off an All-America season in 2016, when she totaled seven scores of 9.9 or higher on floor exercise, including a career-high 9.975.
Streaks
Mikaela Gerber has a streak of 29 consecutive hit routines dating back to 2015. She hit all 19 of her routines last year, including all 14 as the leadoff on beam โฆ Katelyn Ohashi has hit 26 consecutive routines without a fall โฆ Four Bruin returners competed in all 14 meets last season - Mikaela Gerber, JaNay Honest, Sonya Meraz and Madison Preston. Meraz has competed in 27-straight meets, and Gerber has competed in 22-straight.
Kocian, Ross Become First Olympic Gold Medalists to Compete Collegiately
UCLA freshmen Madison Kocian and Kyla Ross made history in the season opener when they became the first two Olympic gold medalists ever to compete in an NCAA women's gymnastics meet. Kocian won team gold as a member of the Final Five along with uneven bars silver at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, while Ross won team gold at the 2012 Olympics in London (along with UCLA volunteer coach Jordyn Wieber) as a member of the Fierce Five.
Kocian won the all-around with a 39.425 in her collegiate debut and also tied for first place on uneven bars (9.875), balance beam (9.85) and floor exercise (9.875) and fourth place on vault (9.825). Ross tied for first on uneven bars (9.875) and placed third on vault (9.875). She also competed on balance beam and scored 9.7.
Vaulting Upwards
Although the Bruins have yet to throw a 10.0 start-value vault this season, the team has been posting solid scores. UCLA ranks fifth in the nation on vault with an average of 49.183. Madison Preston is tied for ninth with a 9.9 average, and Kyla Ross ranks 16th with an average of 9.883. Ross has the team's highest vault score of the season with a 9.925, set last weekend at Oregon State. Madison Kocian is on the brink of the Top 25 on vault, averaging 9.858, with her last two vaults scoring 9.875.
Raising the Bar
UCLA's uneven bars lineup features some of the world's best on the event. Kyla Ross scored the nation's first perfect 10 on uneven bars last weekend at Oregon State and has three bars victories in as many meets. Ross, who ranks second in the nation with an average of 9.933, won a world silver medal and the U.S. national championship on bars in 2013. Madison Kocian is the reigning World co-champion and Olympic silver medalist on the event. Christine Peng-Peng Lee currently ranks fifth in the nation on bars with an average of 9.917. She is a two-time NCAA Regional bars champion and performs three difficult release moves - a Ray, a Bhardwaj and a Shaposh half. Additionally, JaNay Honest is the reigning Pac-12 co-champion, and Stella Savvidou placed fourth at the conference championships and is averaging 9.817 this season. Sonya Meraz is also averaging 9.817 on bars this season and has added difficulty to her routine, upgrading her Tkatchev to a toe-on Tkatchev (Ray). UCLA's bars crew scored a season-high 49.55 at Oregon State last weekend.
Bruins are Beaming
UCLA's balance beam lineup is stacked with experienced, consistent, difficult and elegant routines from start to finish. Solidified in the leadoff position is Mikaela Gerber, who has hit 20 consecutive beam routines. Gerber has a career-high of 9.925 and is averaging 9.808 this season. She captured her first career win on beam in the season opener. In the two-spot is Sonya Meraz, who scored 9.85 or higher eight times last year, with a high of 9.9. Kyla Ross was the U.S. beam champion in 2013 and 2014 and the world silver medalist in 2013. Madison Kocian ranks seventh in the nation on beam with an average of 9.875 and a high of 9.925. Christine Peng-Peng Lee owns a career-high of 9.975 and a season-high of 9.95. She does some of the most unique skills in NCAA, including the Homma flairs mount, a backhandspring-two-foot layout and a double turn. Katelyn Ohashi has competed possibly the most difficult flight series in NCAA history, a backhandspring-backhandspring-layout full. Ohashi owns a career average of 9.85 on beam. The Bruins are averaging 49.175 on beam this season and 49.4 in the last two meets.
Show-Stoppers
UCLA's floor exercise routines are not to be missed. With routines choreographed by Valorie Kondos Field and Hallie Mossett, the Bruins put on a show every time they step onto the floor. Mossett helped choreograph the floor routines for JaNay Honest, Gracie Kramer, Giulianna Pino and Mercedez Sanchez, along with co-choreographing her own Beyonce-inspired routine with Kondos Field. Madison Kocian is the highest-ranked Bruin on floor, currently ranking 12th with an average of 9.9. Although she has not competed since the season opener due to an ankle injury, Madison Preston is ranked 21st based on her meet-winning 9.875 score against Arkansas. Honest is averaging 9.863 in two meets and holds a career-best of 9.925, and Mossett has a 9.842 season average and career-high of 9.95. UCLA's floor lineup will be bolstered by the return of Angi Cipra, who earned All-America and All-Pac-12 honors a year ago. Cipra scored 9.9 or higher seven times in 2016, with a high of 9.975. Napualani Hall and Sonya Meraz each have season-highs of 9.85. UCLA had its strongest showing of the season on floor last weekend, scoring 49.2 at Oregon State.
Looking Ahead
UCLA will return home on Saturday, Feb. 11 to host Stanford at 2pm in Pauley Pavilion.ย
Get Social
UCLA Gymnastics has one of the largest social media followings in all of women's collegiate sports, ranking third across all women's sports in combined likes/followers on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The Bruins rank first among all NCAA gymnastics teams on both Instagram (102k) and Facebook (127k) and fourth on Twitter (15.5k). Among all UCLA teams, gymnastics ranks first on Instagram and Facebook, and UCLA Gymnastics is the most followed Instagram team account in any sport in the Pac-12. Follow the Bruins at @UCLAGymnastics on Instagram and Twitter and on Facebook at facebook.com/uclagymnastics. The team's Snapchat name is also uclagymnastics.
Players Mentioned
