The Arizona gymnastics team hosts Washington tonight, with both teams trying to climb above .500 in Pac-10 competition.
Both the Gymcats and Huskies stand at 2-2 in the Pacific 10 Conference. Arizona enters the meet ranked No. 15 in the country, one spot ahead of Washington.
Arizona (6-2) is coming off a 0.250-point road loss to Oregon State last week. In that meet, freshman Aubrey Taylor finished a team-high third (39.175) in all-around competition.
"(Aubrey) is a gamer. She really rises to the occasion of a meet," said head coach Bill Ryden. "She has an extroverted personality, and she's a very talented gymnast who can certainly make many more impacts to this program."
Unfortunately for the Gymcats, Taylor's emergence came at a time when other team members struggled. Junior Monica Bisordi was named Pac-10 Gymnast of the Week for her performance Feb. 6 against California, but then suffered a rare mistake on beam last week.
"The last two meets, the beam team has not been up to what we feel our standards are," Ryden said. "I know that group of girls is really focused on returning to the form we had just three weeks ago."
Arizona holds the No. 4 ranking on the vault (49.225) but is unranked on beam. Meanwhile, UW holds down the No. 21 beam ranking at 48.817. On vault, UA senior Andi McCabe ranks No. 14 (9.900) in the nation, with sophomore Abby Pearson (9.887) is 19th.
Husky sophomore Kelly McDonald was named this week's Pac-10 Gymnast of the Week. Washington dispatched of Arizona State last week, posting a 39.825 in the all-around Feb. 13.
"Washington is a very good team, no doubt about it," coach Ryden said. "They will come in here and compete."
The Huskies' 197.325-193.075 beat-down of ASU was highlighted by three perfect scores. McDonald scored a perfect score on vault for the first time in her career. Senior Emily Pritchard ended the Huskies' turn on bars with a 10, and junior Kelly Dockendorf scored a 10 to end the meet on the floor.
The first gravity-defying maneuver will be at 7:30 p.m. in McKale Center.