Jan. 21, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

THIS WEEK
Jan. 25 - at Alaska Anchorage, 7 p.m. (KCFT)
Jan. 27 - at Alaska Anchorage, 1 p.m.

LAST WEEK
Jan. 18 - SJSU, SPU & SPRINGFIELD (2nd, 188.625)

NOTES
TO RECAP: Sophomore Tanya Ho was the Aggies' highest place-winner in Friday's quadrangular with San Jose State, Seattle Pacific and Springfield... She finished 2nd on bars at 9.725, her highest score in that event since last season's Boise State road meet on March 2... She also tied for 3rd on vault with a 9.700... As a team, UC Davis managed a 48.000, the 16th straight meet of 48 or better (dating back to late 2006)... Michelle Kulovitz scored a 9.650 and Ho hit her mark to help the team salvage that milestone.

The Aggies improved from their previous week's showing on both bars (47.075 to 47.375) and on floor (46.725 to 46.775), but counted four falls on beam to dip to 46.475... Ho scored a 9.625 to lead UC Davis on floor while freshman Ashley Lachman added a 9.550... The Aggies fielded three all-arounders in the meet: Ho at 37.375, Kulovitz at 37.550 and freshman Stacey Nicolini with her team-high 37.575... However, the injury bug struck again when redshirt sophomore Katie Reinhardt went down after her vault in the first rotation... Reinhardt and Kulovitz were the last Aggies to earn USAG All-America honors (UC Davis stopped competing in that division after 2006)... Friday's meet also represented the first head-to-head matchup between Mountain Pacific Sports Federation teams... UC Davis' 188.625 was almost five full points ahead of defendng champ Seattle Pacific's 183.875.

UP NEXT: UC Davis visits the Last Frontier with back-to-back road meets at MSPF member Alaska Anchorage... Friday's evening meet will be televised on KCFT Channel 35 (Christian Family Television) out of Anchorage... The broadcast will be available on a pay-per-view basis on the Seawolves' website www.goseawolves.com... UC Davis has two meets scheduled for the weekend: Friday's televised meet and a Sunday afternoon... Meet times are 7 p.m. and 2 p.m. Alaska time (6 p.m. and 1 p.m. Pacific).

Both meets represent a homecoming for UC Davis assistant coach Teri Lavallee... The former Teri Frankie was UAA's first gymnastics signee back in the mid-1980s... She earned USAG All-America honors on beam (1985), floor (1986) and vault (1990)... Lavallee also twice earned UAA Athlete of the Year, and was inducted into the Seawolf Hall of Fame in its inaugural class of 2001.

UAA opened its season with a 187.725 in a triangular at Arizona on Jan. 11... Freshman Kelsey Fullerton placed T3rd on beam with a 9.65 while Kristy Boswell finished 6th at 9.55 in the same event... Other top finishers were Kelsey Fullerton (T9th on vault, 9.725; and T8th on floor, 9.625) and Kristy Boswell (T7th on bars, 9.725).

HEAD COACH JOHN LAVALLEE
"From a performance standpoint, it's still very early in the season. When the meet was over, I was concerned. But when I woke up the next day, I remembered what I said on TV [on Jan. 11]: we're still green and this is a learning year. It's Week 2. We still have a lot of freshmen and sophomores out there. I need to exercise some patience. The end of the race is a long ways away. We have two and a half months away of competition. It's not a linear progression, so we need to exercise patience."

"I think we're doing the right things. I was impressed at how the athletes came into the gym before Week 1. They were very focused and motivated to get things done to make the next step forward. It may still take a couple of weeks for some things to come around. I tell the team that they'll learn more from the hard days in the gym than the days when everything comes easy. Friday was one of those hard nights, and I feel we learned a great deal."

On the upcoming weekend: "I want to see the same attitude that we've had these past two weeks. Mentally, we're in a good state of mind. We have a few things that we need to iron out, but they'll get ironed out over the course of the season. We'll see where the judges are at, and make some adjustments. In gymnastics, the rules are tweaked all the time. As a result, we have to continually make adjustments to that. We want to make continued progress toward getting stronger and more confident."