Sunday, September 7th, 2008

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<p>Senior Kristen Maloney and the No. 2 Bruins will have a four-way meet against California, Cal Sta

Senior Kristen Maloney and the No. 2 Bruins will have a four-way meet against California, Cal Sta

Gymnastics: No. 2 Bruins ready to lead 4-way meet

UCLA in good shape with strong record against other 3 teams

There is no mercy rule in collegiate gymnastics, but if there were, Sunday might just be the day it would be used.

The No. 2 UCLA women’s gymnastics team (2-1) will host a quad meet against California (2-0), Cal State Fullerton (1-3) and Sacramento State (2-3), all of which are unranked. Meanwhile, UCLA leads all Division I teams in vault, bars and beam scoring.

“I definitely think we’ll continue our success (Sunday),” senior Kristen Maloney said. “We’ll be putting up a strong lineup and we should do really well.”

Sacramento State, arriving at Pauley fresh off a victory over Brown, is led by junior Carrie Kinghorn, who tallied a career-high 38.15 all-around score in the win. However, the Hornets have found themselves on the losing end of their past two meetings with UCLA.

The other schools in the meet have fared no better. Cal, led by My-Lan Dodd, has won just once in 43 attempts against the Bruins. Though the Golden Bears go into the quad meet on the heels of a big season-opening triangular meet victory, Cal State Fullerton will likely provide the biggest threat to the Bruins this weekend. Last year, the Titans pulled off an improbable upset against UCLA. Although the Titans’ lone senior and team leader, Annette Reyes, has been relegated to the bars and beam after off-season ankle surgery, sophomore Erica Ficarrotta has shown her propensity to step up against the Bruins. In last season’s victory over the Bruins, her 39.125 all-around score was good enough for first place. Still, UCLA holds a comfortable 39-25 record against the Titans.

Providing the most telling proof of UCLA’s advantage over this weekend’s opponents is the comparison of their average final scores this season.

Having scored at least 197 in their last two meets, UCLA holds a 195.9 season average, while the combined averages of the challengers are 191.55.

Still, the Bruins contend they won’t handle the upcoming meet lightly.

“We never underestimate our opponents,” coach Valorie Kondos Field said. “We don’t think about the other teams and we don’t talk about the other teams. We don’t change our strategy for anyone.”