The Bruin gymnastics team dropped its second straight meet on Friday, yet the team could not have been more pleased with its performance.
“This wasn’t just the best road meet, this was the best meet we have had all year,” said coach Valorie Kondos Field.
A handful of tied and new career-bests for the No. 5 Bruins (7-2) pushed them to an away season-best 197.2, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners’ (15-0) school-record 198.375.
Despite the team’s second loss in a row, Kondos Field said that she felt this week was an improvement over last week’s performance against Oregon State.
“We just kept reminding them of what it felt like last weekend and they bought in and decided to be a team,” she said.
Although the past two weeks have shown that at least two teams are capable of beating UCLA, the girls were in high spirits after the loss.
“Everyone feels like we won, even though we didn’t,” said senior Kaelie Baer. “This week was a turning point for us.”
That turning point came with a long sought-after improvement: stuck landings.
After losing to Oregon State last week, senior Lichelle Wong isolated landings as one of the team’s biggest weaknesses.
On Friday, the Bruins saw improvement, sticking four of their dismounts on uneven bars and scoring over 9.8 on each.
In fact, uneven bars was the only event where UCLA took home an individual victory with senior Vanessa Zamarripa scoring an almost-perfect 9.95.
Another personal victory came for freshman Sophina DeJesus, who tied career-bests on beam and floor after sitting out two meets with a concussion.
“I was so excited to get right back out there,” she said. “I was a little bit nervous, but my team was behind me.”
The Bruins had their flaws, however. They lost to Oklahoma in all four events in addition to the individual all-around.
These shortcomings may become problematic for UCLA’s NCAA title hopes, since the team will likely need to go through the same undefeated Sooners team at the championship in April.
“We’re all in agreement that we need to mature emotionally as a team,” Kondos Field said.
