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CLAIRE C. LAURENCE/Arizona Daily Wildcat
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An Arizona gymnast flips on the beam last night at halftime of the women's basketball game in McKale Center.
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By Ross Hammonds
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Friday, January 16, 2004
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The No. 11 Arizona Gymcats will open the spring semester by playing host to the No. 5 UCLA Bruins tonight at 7:30 in McKale Center.
The home schedule for the women's gymnastics team begins with the defending national champion Bruins, who were unexpectedly defeated last week by Utah.
Victories over UCLA have been scarce for Arizona, with the all-time series at 48-2 in the Bruins' favor. In 2002, when the Bruins made the trip to the desert, Arizona prevailed 195.175 to 195.100.
Sixth-year head coach Bill Ryden is looking for a repeat of that performance from the 2002 season. That same year he earned Pacific10 Conference Coach of the Year honors as Arizona made an appearance in the NCAA Championships.
"There is a comparison to that (2002) team, where six freshmen had big impacts," Ryden said. "We have experience now. They're juniors and we have more depth for when we compete."
The comparisons continue to pile up.
The Wildcats opened the 2002 season 3-0 and held their first home meet against UCLA. Arizona was ranked No. 6 and UCLA No. 3 heading into the weekend, as Arizona notched a rare victory over the Bruins.
"We match up fine with (UCLA), and we want to show how good this team can be when we compete," Ryden said. "Every (Pac-10) meet is going to get compared nationally."
The Wildcats and Bruins are matched evenly, based on their previous performances this season. Arizona is ranked fourth in the nation on the vault (49.175) and tenth on the floor (49.025).
The Wildcat vault attack is led individually by senior Andi McCabe, who is No. 11 in the nation (9.900), and by junior Monica Bisordi in the all-around (39.300). She ranks No. 14 in the country.
UCLA is first in the nation on the beam (49.925), fourth on the floor (49.350) and eighth in vault (49.100).
"We've never had a perfect meet, but if we were to have a near-perfect meet, we could compete with anyone in the nation." Ryden said.
