LOS ANGELES –The No. 21 California women's gymnastics team logged its second-highest score of the season but fell to No. 15 UCLA 196.800-195.425 Sunday morning at Pauley Pavilion. Cal is now 10-1 overall and 2-1 against Pac-12 teams.
Sophomore Desiree Palomares scored career-highs on all three of her events, and freshman Toni-Ann Williams made history by setting a program-record 9.975 on vault. Cal's underclassmen have been a bright spot all season long as the team works to put together strong performances across all four events.
“I think that our overall performance is getting better and better as far as performance factor goes, but we're having trouble being the same team from the beginning of the meet to the end of the meet,” said associate head coach Elisabeth Crandall-Howell. “I think that has to do with how young our team is. Our team is still learning. The tools that they're building ever y meet, they're using, but they're having to accumulate the tools of a veteran team really early.”
The Bears fought through adversity from the get-go. On top of an early meet time and facing a longtime rival in UCLA, the uneven bars came undone during warm-ups and Cal was forced to change its practice order, moving instead to floor and beam while the bars were fixed. Despite their youth, the Bears responded with maturity.
“The bars coming out of the floor was completely unnerving,” Crandall-Howell said. “They could've completely folded -- having to warm up a different rotation, rushing through warm-ups, having to change really quickly to make the TV start time -- there were a lot of things going against us today that the team could've used as excuses today, but they didn't.”
“I was very proud of them to see that they were adaptable to the situation and flexible with the changes we needed to make and the things that were thrown at them. That says a lot about what kind of team we have,” said head coach Justin Howell.
Cal opened the meet on bars, where stringing together a solid set of routines, but missing some of the bigger scores that they've drawn in recent meets. Sophomore Emily Richardson once again led off the event, earning a 9.725, and a pair of 9.80s from sophomores Dana Ho and Amber Takara highlighted the rotation.
Vault was nothing short of a tremendous effort from the Bears, who put together the fourth-highest event total in Cal history with a 49.350. Three Cal gymnasts – sophomore Charlie Owens, Palomares and Richardson – tallied 9.85s to share third in a five-way tie. The strongest vault of the night by far came from Williams, who led runner-up Jordan Williams of UCLA by one-tenth to finish with her career-high 9.975 and a new vault-high for the Cal program.
“Everybody has stepped up to the plate on vault,” Howell said. “One through six they're banging out these great vaults with great landings.”
Up against one of the nation's historically great floor teams, the Golden Bears shined with their second-highest score on the event this season. Williams anchored the event with a 9.90 to earn second place, and Palomares set a career-high 9.825. The Bears outscored the Bruins 49.150-49.125 on the event, but UCLA led 147.625-147.300 after three rotations.
Beam once again proved to be a hurdle for the Bears, who finished with a 48.075 after logging two 9.25s to start the rotation. Sophomore Zoe Draghi picked things back up for the Bears with a 9.625 in the middle of the lineup, setting the tone for a 9.75 from Ho. Palomares continued her strong meet by matching her career-high 9.85 to win second place.
The Bears' beam struggles this season are nothing new, as the team has failed to tally above a 49.0 in 2015 despite a very capable lineup, which Crandall-Howell attributes to the youth of the team.
“We need to believe that we've put in the work. The gymnasts handle themselves so well in the gym and put in the work on beam, but they need to treat the meet situation just like another workout,” Crandall-Howell said.
While UCLA ultimately came away with the win, the Bears kept it neck-and-neck through several rotations, outscoring the Bruins on vault and floor.
“We are proving that we can compete with anybody,” Crandall-Howell said. “We're doing what we're doing without putting together a full meet yet. We're doing that with a young team. It's really great to think that we're going to have these athletes a long time and they have a long way to go. Once they do that and put it all together, who knows where this team can go?”
NEXT UP
The Bears return to action in one week to host Bay Area and Pac-12 rival Stanford at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley. The meet begins at noon on Sunday, Feb. 8 and will be televised live on the Pac-12 Networks.
NEWS & NOTES
· Career-Bests: V: Owens (matched career-high 9.85), Palomares (9.85), Williams (9.975); UB: None; BB: Palomares (matched career-high 9.85) ; FX: Palomares (9.80)
· Event Titles: V: Williams
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