Coach John Lavallee’s gymnasts are to be ready to go at all times.
He says that injuries create such an unpredictable environment that an individual never knows when she’ll be needed at the last minute.
That is why the Aggies rely on their depth and individual abilities to fill in for injured teammates.
This served them well all season including Sunday’s dual at Cal State Fullerton.
Senior Tanya Ho was given a lighter load due to an injury. So Kendall McCann stepped up to compete in the all-around for just the third time in the 2010 campaign.
Despite a 192.975-192.700 loss to the Titans, McCann’s 9.800 score on balance beam helped the Aggies to their high road score of the season.
“While we didn’t post the score we were hoping for, it was a solid road performance for us,” Lavallee said. “There were really a lot of positive things.”
McCann led a 1-2-3 sweep on beam and boosted her all-around score to 38.575. This landed her at second in all-around behind Fullerton’s Alaina Baker (38.925) who won both vault and floor exercise.
“McCann had another great day,” Lavallee said. “She’s done an excellent job performing consistently for us.”
Marcy Miller and Katie Yamamura weren’t far behind McCann on beam with scores of 9.775 and 9.750, respectively.
Lavallee said the balance beam was one of the most impressive aspects of Sunday’s meet.
“On beam in the last event, we were down by four tenths and we came back to within two-tenths,” Lavallee said. “That was a huge step for us in terms of being mentally strong.”
Miller and Yamamura were strong in the all-around as well, filling the third and fourth spots in that order.
Among other top Aggies was Erika Van Dyke who scored 9.800 points on floor exercise and took second place behind Baker.
Michele Hurlock and Michelle Bobonski tied for third on vault with 9.725 points.
Lida Gehlen posted 9.800 on uneven parallel bars and tied Baker for second place in that rotation.
Lavallee has high hopes for the remainder of the season based on his team’s performance at Fullerton.
“If we count a 192.700 as our lowest Regional Qualifying Score, it’ll still be higher than any other RQS score that we’ve had,” Lavallee said. “It really says a lot about the program stepping up a level.”
UC Davis is in action again Friday when it travels to San Jose, Calif. to face Sacramento State and San Jose State at 7 p.m.
GRACE SPRAGUE can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
