And it wasn’t even that close, as Murphy’s Law hit the UCLA women’s gymnastics team and hit them hard in their 195.350 – 194.600 loss to the Washington Huskies in Seattle last night.
Though the winners on the individual apparatuses were all Bruins, led by Vanessa Zamarripa’s 9.925 on the uneven parallel bars, Valorie Kondos Field’s team had a real bad time on the bars, where they had some big reductions for some sub-par performances, and the balance beam, where their historical weakness in that event reared its ugly head as they suffered two falls and had to count one.
Samantha Peszek won on bars and beam with a score of 9.850, continuing her outstanding season to date, while Alyssa Pritchett won the floor exercise with her 9.875 score.
Peszek didn’t compete in the all-around this particular time; Lichelle Wong was one of two Bruins who did and finished third with a score of 38.375, a bad performance on bars doing her in.
I’m sure that Kondos Field was as upset as the Husky gymnasts and fans were ecstatic, as the bad turns on the bars and the beam just gave this meet away.
In short, while giving all due credit to Washington, they didn’t beat UCLA so much as UCLA beat themselves – which I am positive that they won’t let happen again.
NEXT OPPONENT: Stanford Cardinal, John Wooden Center, Sunday, February 5, 12:30 p.m.
Check out and contact us at our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/gojoebruin, and our Twitter page, www.twitter.com/socalshfanatic