The No. 22 UA gymnastics team will hit the road for the second consecutive week tonight as they travel to Berkeley to take on California.
"I always look forward to road meets," said sophomore Aubrey Taylor. "I love to travel."
Arizona (8-4, 1-1 Pacific 10 Conference) is coming off a second-place finish in a four-team meet in Seattle Jan. 28. The Gymcats placed behind No. 21 Washington.
"Each meet (the team) has gotten progressively better," said Arizona assistant coach Colleen Johnson.
The team needs to perform well this weekend to improve its Regional Qualifying Score, Johnson said. The RQS is the combination of a team's top six scores during the season, three of which must be away scores. These figures determine who goes to the postseason.
Last weekend the team finished with a season-high score of 194.800. That score included career highs from freshmen Rachelle Silberg (9.825 on vault), Danielle Hicks (9.725 on beam) and Karin Wurm, who set career-bests in three events: uneven parallel bars (9.800), floor exercise (9.750) and vault (9.750).
"We have looked really good in practice this week," Taylor said. "This weekend is looking good."
Though California (5-1, 0-1 Pac-10) hosts the Wildcats unranked, the team is coming off a strong performance at Haas Pavilion Jan. 28. The Golden Bears placed 1-2-3 in the all-around competition, leading to a 190.175-187.050 victory over UC-Davis.
Cal senior Miho Maeda set a new career-best mark of 38.875 in the all-around and scored a 9.775 on floor, tying a season high.
Freshman Nicki Wells tallied a 9.650 on the bars, helping herself to a third-place finish in her first collegiate all-around (35.800).
After tonight, the Wildcats return to Tucson for two weeks. Arizona hosts Stanford in McKale Center Feb. 12 and Oregon State the following week.