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Arizona loses to Stanford, remains winless in Pac 10

Despite getting a strong performance from sophomore Randi Liljenquist, the No. 16 Arizona gymnastics team was defeated by No. 11 Stanford Friday night in Palo Alto, Calif.

UA head coach Bill Ryden said he was disappointed with the performance of the Wildcats, who were outscored 194.1 to 191.275.

"This was not our best competition," Ryden said. "We came out really flat."

Liljenquist won the meet's overall title after she finished second on the beam and third on the floor.

Freshman Nikki Beyschau got the Wildcats off on to a strong start by taking first place on the bars with a 9.9 score. The team followed suit, finishing with 48.675 points after the first event.

The second event, however, proved to be the downfall for Arizona. Sophomore Mary Reiss hyperextended her knee during her first vault, preventing her from performing her second attempt. The extent of Reiss' injury was not known last night.

A conservative performance by the remaining Wildcat vaulters earned the team a 47.6 score, which is considered low for this event.

Liljenquist finished second on the beam with a 9.8 score, and senior Kiernan Andrews earned third place honors with a 9.75.

Although Lilenquist's 9.75 was good for third place, Ryden was unhappy with the team's overall performance in the floor event.

"We had a number of uncharacteristic problems on the floor," he said. " (The) floor is usually our best event, but it wasn't today."

Ryden, though, said the team would be able to use the meet to improve on the mistakes they made.

"We will use this meet as a constant reminder of the problems we had," Ryden said. "Hopefully this will motivate us to work harder for the rest of our meets."

The team (2-2 overall, 0-2 Pacific 10 Conference) is still looking to earn its first conference win. Before it has another shot at a conference foe, it will get a chance to gain more experience Friday night in Tucson against San Jose State. The Wildcats then travel to Colorado to take on No. 15 University of Denver on Sunday.