ASU junior Stephanie Miceli performs her floor exercise routine against Stanford on Saturday Jan. 31, 2015, at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. Miceli finished her routine with a score of 9.725. (Krista Tillman/ The State Press)The ASU gymnastics team is returning to Tempe on Friday to host No. 10 Oregon State in a meet in which both teams are coming off season-highs in overall scores.
The Gym Devils posted a season-best 195.375 against Arizona on Monday, but it wasn't enough to beat the Gym Cats, who took the Territorial Cup Series point in gymnastics.
Oregon State, meanwhile, comes to the Grand Canyon State fresh off of a 197.250 score in a win against California, a score that was their season-high as well.
That meet was on Friday, so the Beavers have had a full week of rest to recover mentally and physically. The Gym Devils only had three days off in between their meets at Arizona and against Oregon State.
Head coach Rene Lyst isn't too concerned, however.
She said the team understands how to handle the short work and it shouldn't be too much of a concern on Friday night.
"(This week, Wednesday) is really the only full day of workout we'll have," Lyst said. "The day before the meet is usually pretty light. We're just trying to pace them, which at this point in the season isn't too difficult because they're already in (season) mode. They're trained, they know what to do, they just have to be fresh for Friday."
With the team coming off its best performance of the season, confidence is high for the Gym Devils, even though they haven't won a meet since Jan. 9.
"We have some landings that need to get better, just some small detail work besides getting a little bit more difficulty on some of our lineups," Lyst said. "They know what we need to do when we go into practice to get ready to be that much better for Friday."
ASU and Oregon State have a long history in gymnastics against each other.
Friday will mark the 83rd time these teams have met, with the Beavers leading the series 58-22-2.
Oregon State will be one of ASU's final Pac-12 opponents of the season, before the team plays a duo of non-conference opponents in preparation for March 21's Pac-12 Championships.
But Lyst said the team tries not to look too far ahead, especially at this point in the season.
"It's pretty much one week at a time," Lyst said. "Pac-12s is really just another regular season meet for us, it just gives us another score for regional qualification. We focus more on Regionals and trying to put ourselves in the best position for that competition."
NCAA Regionals are Saturday, April 4.
In order to get there, the Gym Devils need to improve further on a string of recent performances that have been impressive.
In each of its past four meets, ASU's final overall score has improved by at least 0.325 points.
The Sun Devils will look to extend that streak to five straight when they host the No. 10 Beavers on Friday, Feb. 20, at Wells Fargo Arena. The meet will start at 7 p.m.
Reach the reporter at mtquesad@asu.edu or follow @mitchTquesada on Twitter.
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