Feb. 25, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

THIS WEEK
Feb. 29 - ALASKA ANCHORAGE, 6 p.m.

LAST WEEK
Feb. 22 - at San Jose State (2nd, 192.300)

NOTES
TO RECAP: UC Davis posted season-high scores on balance beam (47.725) and floor exercise (47.975) to tally another season best, a 192.300 total at San Jose State... Sophomore Lida Gehlen won the uneven bars for the sixth time this season, scoring a 9.800... Freshman Stacey Nicolini tied for the vault win, also posting a 9.800... She has now scored 9.775-9.800-9.800 during the three previous meets, moving her to the top of the MPSF with a 9.740 regional-qualifying score (RQS)... Sophomore Michelle Bobonski enjoyed a strong overall meet, scoring 9.775 on vault, 9.625 on bars and 9.725 on balance beam... Last year's Most Improved winner, "Bobo" had only competed on bars in 2007 and did not make her collegiate beam debut until the Feb. 16 meet at Air Force.

IN THE RANKINGS: Nicolini leads a 1-2-3-4 Aggie sweep among the conference's RQS leaders... Marcy Miller is second at 9.715, with Michelle Kulovitz (9.705) and Tanya Ho (9.695) close behind... Gehlen has a stranglehold on the top bars slot with a 9.800 RQS, well ahead of Alaska Anchroage's Kristy Boswell at 9.690... Gehlen ranks sixth in the West Region among the 56 qualifiers thus far (gymnasts must have appeared in at least six meets to score an RQS)... She is the only Aggie to place among the top 10 in any regional leaderboard... Kendall McCann (9.585) and Nicolini (9.570) occupy the top two beam rankings in the MPSF, while Kulovitz (9.580) and Adee Schoffman (9.570) are Nos. 3 and 4, respectively, on floor exercise.

UP NEXT: UC Davis returns home to host MPSF leaguemate Alaska Anchorage for a dual on Friday... The Aggies have chosen this meet to honor seniors Carrie Lujan and Michelle Kulovitz, even though there are two more home meets after Friday... However, the Stanford/Sac State/San Jose State quad meet falls on Easter Sunday, and the true home finale is the conference championship meet.

2008 SENIORS: Lujan has been sidelined by injury all season but made her first 2008 appearance as an exhibition entry on vault and floor last Friday... One of two team co-captains, Lujan is a three-time All-MPSF honoree, including a first-team nod on vault in 2006... Last year she won all-conference accolades on vault and floor and was an alternate qualifier (to teammate Tanya Ho) on vault to the NCAA Regional in Berkeley... The other captain and senior honoree, Michelle Kulovitz, is the Aggies' last USAG national champion... She won the all-around at the 2006 national meet, one of four USAG All-America awards during her career... The team's third listed senior, Andi Dolinsky, has opted to sit out the remainder of this season and will attempt to earn a medical hardship season and return in 2009.

ALASKA ANCHORAGE (3-7) has been idle from competition since hosting Illinois State in back-to-back home duals on Feb. 15 and 17... The Aggies and Seawolves squared off in two meets in Anchorage on Jan. 25 and 27, with UC Davis posting winning scores of 191.275 and 190.050 in those duals... UAA picked up event wins by Jessica Portlock (9.600 on vault) and Kelsey Fullerton (9.750 on floor) in its most recent competition... Fullerton leads the MPSF on floor exercise at 9.665, slightly ahead of Air Force's Abigail Rogers (9.660).

HEAD COACH JOHN LAVALLEE
"Friday was a huge jump in our performance. I feel like the changes we've made in our practice schedule over the past two weeks have finally paid off. Everybody, especially the younger kids, are getting comfortable about where they're at and what they're doing. Across the board, there has been a big transformation. The team knows what they need to do to perform at that level."

"I told the team after the meet that once we are comfortable at going out there and knowing what we are going to do, then we can start shaving off the tenths of a point. If everyone had shaved one tenth [deduction] of a point, we would have tied San Jose. It really was a good performance for us. We want to get back in the gym and get ready to repeat it this weekend and for the remainder of the season."