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Gymnastics looks for first Pac-10 win

by Ryan Marie DeGolia

After finishing second in its first meet of the season, the No.16 Arizona gymnastics' team heads to the Bay Area for its next challenge. UA (2-1 overall, 0-1 Pac-10) looks for its first conference win over No. 11 Stanford (2-1 overall, 0-1 Pac-10) tomorrow night.

"Stanford has a lot of good athletes and a strong program," UA head coach Bill Ryden said. "They are the real deal."

The last meeting between these two teams had Arizona upset then-No. 9 Stanford at home. The Wildcats swept the bars, beam and vault events to beat the Cardinal.

In order to earn its first conference win, Arizona has focused on decreasing errors made in each event.

"We need to diminish the number of uncharacteristic falls," Ryden said. "We underperformed on numerous occasions."

The Wildcats will look to its three all-arounders to help earn a win against Stanford. Junior Kara Fry, sophomore Randi Liljenquist and freshman Nikki Beyschau will compete in all four events.

Liljenquist lifted the team to its second place finish Friday by tying teammate Kiernan Andrews for first place on the floor. Both had career-highs of 9.85 while Andrews also set a career-high of 9.675 on the beam.

Beyschau earned fifth place on both the vault (9.775) and the bars (9.750) in her first collegiate meet.

The remaining members will compete where needed to best utilize the team's abilities. Fifth year senior Heidi Hornbeek and senior Lisa Heckel are looking to receive a strong score on the bars to help the team achieve a victory over Stanford. Heckel set a career-high 9.725 on the bars last week. Hornbeek recorded a 9.7 on the same event. Hornbeek is questionable to compete on the bars due to a leg injury.

"We have lineup dilemmas," Ryden said. "The lineup and the vault are consistently an issue for us."

Another concern for Ryden will be the team's performance on the beam and the bars.

"We were uncharacteristic and underperformed on both events," Ryden said. "We need to come out strong against Stanford and hopefully we will get the win."