Teams: UC Davis vs. Air Force
Where: The Pavilion
When: Sunday at 1 p.m.
Who to watch: Junior Michelle Ho was announced as the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Gymnast of the Week on Tuesday. It is the third such honor of her career at UC Davis.
The award came after Sunday’s meet at Stanford in which the Los Altos, Calif. native had strong performances on floor, uneven bars and balance beam in her collegiate all-around debut.
The Aggies have captured both of the first two MPSF Gymnast of the Week awards of 2012. The first honor of the new season was awarded last week to junior Katie Yamamura.
Did you know? UC Davis has never been defeated by the Air Force Academy since John Lavallee became head coach in 2008.
The last time the team hosted Air Force was on Feb. 4 last year, when the Aggies delivered a sound 192.100-to-188.950 victory over the visiting Falcons.
Preview: After two challenging road trips, UC Davis is ready to perform for a hometown audience.
In addition to being the first home meet of the season, Sunday’s duel with Air Force will be the Aggies’ first test against an MPSF opponent.
After coming in second to UC Davis in last year’s MPSF Championship, Air Force is sure to be ready to take advantage of any mistakes in order to top the Aggies.
But Lavallee believes that his team is ready for the challenge.
“We expect to have a very exciting meet,” Lavallee said. “We’re really looking to learn from our experiences and get our level of performance up.”
The meet will serve as Alumni Day, in which former UC Davis gymnasts will be recognized, including members of the men’s gymnastics program.
As Sunday’s duel is one of only five home meets, the team hopes that the alumni will be joined by a large student crowd.
“It’s always great [to compete] in the Pavilion,” explained Lavallee. “The student support is always great and something that [the team] looks forward to.”
