Feb. 23, 2009

Complete Release in PDF Format

THIS WEEK
Friday, Feb. 27 - STANFORD/SAN JOSE STATE, 7 p.m.

LAST WEEK
Friday, Feb. 20 - SEATTLE PACIFIC (1st, 192.350)

NOTES
LAST WEEK: The Aggies (4-6-1) improved their season-best score to 192.350 in a home dual with MPSF rival Seattle Pacific... Junior Kendall McCann won the individual all-around with a career-high 38.300, while tying for the uneven bars victory with teammate Lida Gehlen (9.700)... UC Davis won all four events: in addition to McCann/Gehlen on bars, Tanya Ho captured the vault win at 9.750, Stacey Nicolini captured the balance beam title with a 9.725, and Andi Dolinsky claimed the floor exercise with a 9.750...

UC Davis tied its season best with a 48.300 on vault... Nicolini added a 9.725, while senior Adee Schoffman posted a 9.650... Freshman Erika Van Dyke enjoyed a strong two-event meet, turning in a 9.525 on beam and second-place 9.725 on floor... Sophomore Marcy Miller, who returned to competition two weeks ago at Stanford, tallied marks of 9.625 and 9.600 on vault and bars, respectively.

RANKINGS: UC Davis bumped up its regional-qualifying score by seven tenths to 191.210, holding the top spot in the MPSF and eighth place in the West Region... The Aggies also hold the conference's No. 1 individual ranking on all four events... Ho boasts a 9.715 RQS on vault, Gehlen leads on bars at 9.765, McCann leads the beam standing at 9.520, Dolinsky holds a slight lead ahead of Air Force's Jenna Dudley on floor with a 9.760 RQS... Gehlen and Dolinsky both rate in the top 20 regionally for their respective events, while Ho is 23rd in the West on vault.

UP NEXT: The Aggies' three-meet homestand continues, this time with a triangular with No. 3 Stanford and No. 29 San Jose State on Friday night... Note: Alaska Anchorage, which appears on previous versions of the 2009 schedule, has since withdrawn from the competition in favor of two road meets on the East coast.

Friday's Special Faculty Assistant Coach of the Meet will be Dr. Doug Gross, a pediatrician at the UC Davis Medical Center and senior lecturer in cell biology and human anatomy... Dr. Gross teaches graduate-level courses in neuroscience and developmental, gross and radiologic anatomy in the School of Medicine... For familiar to Aggie undergrads, he also serves as course director in human anatomy.

STANFORD (12-0) broke the 197-point barrier for the third straight meet, delivering a season-best 197.175 against local rival California... Remarkably, the Cardinal compiled this score despite resting top all-arounders Carly Janiga and Nicole Ourada... Former Canadian national champ Alyssa Brown hit a team season-best 9.925 to win on vault, while freshman Nicole Pechanec (a member of the Czech national team) hit 9.925 on floor and 9.900 for her collegiate beam debut... Junior Allyse Ishino won the bars at 9.900 and tied Pechanec for the beam win.

SAN JOSE STATE (10-1) won a tough quadrangular at Brigham Young on Friday, besting the host Cougars plus Boise State and Utah State with a 194.850 team score... Veronica Porte posted outright individual wins on vault (9.925) and floor (9.825), while sharing the beam victory with BYU's Kaylee Gallup (9.800)... As a team, the Spartans set a school record on vault, compiling a 49.100.

HEAD COACH JOHN LAVALLEE
"I was absolutely pleased overall. We had a good day. The team really seemed to jell as a group, which I think made the biggest difference in their overall performances. It's part of the whole process of figuring out what everybody needs. That's something we've been working on over the past couple of weeks. The presentation and approach to the meet was different than before."

"We have a big test on Friday night. It's important to come into the gym and hold our own. If we can do that, it will be extremely encouraging. Stanford is ranked third and San Jose State is 29th. The change in attitude the team came in with on Friday night really is the shot in the arm they need in order to step up during the next few weeks."