Everyone knows that a good matchup between rivals should be close. Someone should have reminded the Aggies.
On Friday, UC Davis posted a season-high score to convincingly beat fellow Mountain Pacific Sports Federation member Seattle Pacific, 191.500 to 189.175.
The Aggies had little time to recover as they headed to No. 4 Stanford. Though they fell 197.100 to 189.350, the Aggies saw many positives in the second half of the season’s only doubleheader.
“For the weekend as a whole,” said coach John Lavallee, “we had a really good showing at both meets in terms of our performance and in terms of staying together as a team. It was really encouraging. They did a great job.“
Friday – UC Davis 191.500, Seattle Pacific 189.175
Competing against their rival at their home gym, junior Tanya Ho was able to put forth the performance of the night, winning vault, beam and all-around as well as hitting her floor routine for the first time this season.
“I’m glad that I hit four-for-four events,” said Ho. “I made my floor routine, but I watered down my last pass. I can either twist or not twist it. It’s not completely changing it, but it’s just the easy version. I modified it so I could get confidence in hitting routines.“
On bars, junior Lida Gehlen proved she should contend for a second MPSF title on that event, as she scored a season-high 9.850 for the win.
Though led by Ho and junior Michelle Bobonski’s tie for first at 9.675, the Aggies struggled on vault as a whole. Their score of 47.325 was the lowest of the season.
“Friday went pretty well,” said Lavallee. “We had a few struggles on vault of all events, which the past few seasons has been a very good event for us. But we had a good meet, came away with a good, solid victory at SPU. It’s a conference meet for us, so we were pretty happy about that.“
Sunday – Stanford 197.100, UC Davis 189.175
Filling in at the last minute for UCLA, the Aggies meet against Stanford served not only as a chance to see a top, nationally ranked team but also a chance to mix up the lineup.
“We filled in for UCLA, who had a terrible intestinal virus; the entire team was quarantined by their physician,” said Lavallee. “Sunday was a great opportunity for us to get a few people who are coming off injury a chance to go out in front of judges and perform.“
The Aggies‘ lone top-three finisher in an individual event was sophomore Michelle Hurlock, who shattered her season’s best on beam by .575 to score 9.825 en route to tying for third. Hurlock also scored a career-high 9.550 on bars, though that was only the second time she has competed on the event. Her first time on bars came against SPU on Friday.
“I had a pretty good weekend,” said Hurlock. “Seattle was my first time traveling in college, so that was exciting. I didn’t have my best performance on beam [in Seattle], but it made me more motivated for Sunday to do better. It was also my first time competing on bars in college and I made my routine, which is exciting.“
Sunday saw the return of sophomore Marcy Miller, who sprained her knee the first week of the season. Miller tied with senior co-captain Adee Schoffman to lead the Aggies on vault at 9.675 in addition to scoring on bars and beam.
Other top marks included senior co-captain Andi Dolinsky’s season-high 9.800 on floor and freshman Erika Van Dyke’s 9.750 on beam. Additionally, Schoffman scored a 37.275 in her collegiate all-around debut to take third in the event.
ALEX WOLF-ROOT can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
