Jan. 29, 2007

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THIS WEEK
Feb. 4 - at Air Force, 2 p.m. MST

LAST WEEK
Jan. 26 - at CS Fullerton w/SUU & Hamline (3rd, 189.675)

NOTES
Junior Andi Dolinsky shattered her previous best on balance beam in Friday's quad-meet at Cal State Fullerton, placing 3rd with a 9.750... She had missed on three beam appearances during her first two years as an Aggie, then on her first two first two in 2007... Dolinsky also led UC Davis on floor exercise with a 9.550.

The vault squad struck again with a 48.650, getting a third straight meet win from freshman Tanya Ho, who scored 9.850 in the event... UC Davis has now scored 48.875, 48.700 and 48.650 in three meets... By comparison, the school record entering the 2007 season was the 48.650 set vs. Sacramento State in last year's season finale... Ho is the first Aggie to pick up three straight meet wins since Tiffany Chan in 2004, who opened the season with medals on vault-vault-beam-floor, respectively... Ho and Carrie Lujan are 1-2 on the MPSF vault leaderboard, although only total averages are available (regional-qualifying scores cannot be tabulated until teams have competed in the minimum number of meets)... Ho has an average of 9.842 in three meets, while Lujan is second in the conference at 9.775... Ho is 5th in the West Region, just behind Tabitha Yim of Stanford (9.850)... UCLA is the only West team with enough meets for an RQS, former Olympian Tasha Schwikert is the regional vault leader with a 9.860... As a team, UC Davis has the third highest vault average in the West Region, behind only Stanford (48.937) and UCLA (49.058).

Uneven bars is the only event that has increased its score in each week, opening with 46.825 at home on Jan. 12, improved to 47.250 at Seattle Pacific (Jan. 19) then hitting 47.625 at Fullerton last weekend... Freshman Lida Gehlen matched her season-opening 9.750, placing T3rd in Friday's meet... She is the early-season leader in the MPSF, averaging 9.717 in three events.

UP NEXT: The Aggies take on their second MPSF opponent of the season, facing Air Force in a road dual Sunday... The Falcons improved five points from their opener at Denver to a 184.925 in a triangular meet at Pittsburgh... Redshirt freshman Abilgail Rogers and senior Sashonna Iwaniec had AFA's highest finishes, each placing sixth on floor at 9.575... Like UC Davis, Air Force is in its first year under a new head coach... Former Minnesota assistant Doug Day took the helm last fall while 2006 interim head coach Holly Tedeschi returned to her longtime role as top assistant.

HEAD COACH JOHN LAVALLEE
"It takes a while to learn to be competitive. It takes success to learn how to be successful. We still have a long way to go, but we have a lot of things out there that are very encouraging. Friday's meet was good for us. It's how a team develops, and it's part of the learning process."

"[UC Davis men's swimming coach] Pete Motekaitis told me, `I see you have good vaulting and that tells me you have strong and healthy athletes'. He's an outsider to gymnastics who was just looking at the scoresheet, but that really is the answer right there. We have strong, healthy people. I was very encouraged by that after the first meet, and it's showing through on vault right now. It's not just me and the coaching staff -- the kids will tell you how excited they are about vault. "

SENIOR CO-CAPTAIN CAROLYN KAMPF
"I think we're doing really well, especially on vault. We've done better than expected on bars in all three meets. We have a lot of people on beam and floor, so we're finding the right combination of people to get the scores. We have to experiment with the lineup to get the right progression. You want your most consistent person go first and your highest scorer going last."

JUNIOR MICHELLE KULOVITZ
On competing in the all-around: "I actually pulled it together at the last minute. Going into the first meet, I didn't think I would be in the all-around. Then on that Thursday -- surprise. It was pretty intimidating, but I've made it work for the last two meets."

"I like doing the all-around. I don't like breaks. I want to keep going. Usually I'm taking a break when we're on floor, yet that's my favorite event to compete. I think I'm doing best on vault right now, but there is still a lot of progressing that I need to do there. Floor is coming along. I need to add a full twist to my last pass. Other than that, bars and beam have been pretty good. I'm still getting confidence on bars. I had a cast on this summer so I couldn't practice it at all. So coming back on bars was harder."