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ASU gymnastics falls to rival Arizona despite season-high overall score

Rene Lyst- gymnastics
Head coach Rene Lyst coaches the ASU gymnastics team on Jan. 9, 2015 at Sun Devil Stadium. (Photo by Andrew Ybanez)

Head coach Rene Lyst coaches the ASU gymnastics team on Jan. 9, 2015, at Wells Fargo Arena. ASU hosts  No. 19 Stanford this weekend. (Photo by Andrew Ybanez) Head coach Rene Lyst coaches the ASU gymnastics team on Jan. 9, 2015, at Wells Fargo Arena. (Photo by Andrew Ybanez)

As well as the ASU gymnastics team has been performing lately, the team can't seem to catch a break.

The Gym Devils fell to the Arizona Gym Cats on Monday night, 196.625-195.375, despite their best overall score of the season.

But bad luck seems to be the story of ASU's year to this point.

The Gym Devils have been short-handed for much of the season because of various injuries and even with their best performance of the year on Monday in Tucson, it wasn't enough to beat Arizona, who also had its best meet of the year.

The Gym Cats notched a 196.625 overall score that was their season-high, and they also posted season-highs on three of their four rotations against the Gym Devils.

"There's nothing we can do about the team we're going against," head coach Rene Lyst said. "It's just basically about our own performances. To have our team continue to improve when we still don't have our full lineup of difficulty in there is really encouraging. I feel like we're going to continue to get better and better and we have a lot to look forward to the rest of the season."

The Gym Devils were led once again by junior Taylor Allex, who scored a 39.300 all-around in just her second all-around performance of the season.

Though that score was the highest on her team and second overall behind only Arizona's Allison Flores (39.350), Allex wasn't completely satisfied with her score.

"I'm not ecstatic about it, but I'm not disappointed," Allex said. "There are a lot of things I can fix (especially on) the bars with my form. I really think there are things in my routine that I can clean up and my landings weren't that great this meet, but I'm getting more consistent so I'm happy with that but not happy with my overall all-around score."

Allex, originally a transfer from Utah, was competing in her first Territorial Cup meet and so was Lyst who noted their focus wasn't primarily on the Gym Cats.

"I'm learning about the rivalry," Lyst said. "But we were excited to go down there and give them a run for their money and have a good performance for ourselves. That was our main focus tonight."

That focus helped the Gym Devils hit all 24 of their routines and hit the 49-point mark on the bars rotation for the first time since the season opener.

Senior Brianna Gades had the highest score by a Gym Devil on any rotation with a season-high 9.875 on the balance beam, which also matched her career-high.

"We've really been working on my dismounts," Gades said, "making sure I land my series and my one-arm while making sure my stomach's been tight and we've been doing a lot of repetition so that's been helping."

Gades has been competing for ASU since she was a freshman and Monday night was her final Duel in the Desert.

"It was kind of a bittersweet feeling," Gades said. "I've been going there and they've been coming (to Tempe) for four years so it's always a fun meet, one that we really look forward to."

Her favorite memory?

"My freshman year, when we beat them for the first time in six years. I just remember being a freshman with that team and it was just a really good memory."

Senior Natasha Sundby had the exact same memory as her favorite when it comes to the Territorial Cup Series.

"We were just freshmen on the team and it was an amazing experience and the seniors were all crying because it was their first time being able to beat them," Sundby said. "That was definitely the most memorable."

Sundby, who scored a 9.825 on the vault and 9.850 on the floor, was excited by the energy the the Duel in the Desert brought to the Gym Devils.

"I think we took it as if we were going in just to better our team," Sundby said. "We obviously wanted to go in with the intentions of beating them because they are our biggest rival and we've experienced that before going up against them but tonight we really wanted to go in and be better than we have been in past weeks and I think we accomplished that. We were pretty happy with that performance."

Lyst echoed that point and looked at it as another building block as the season progresses.

"We just keep focusing on the details and being the best we can be that night while being aggressive on our performances," Lyst said. "I think the girls did a really great job on all of those points."

Junior Allie Salas scored a 39.050 all-around and junior Stephanie Miceli posted a 38.850 all-around score.

Sophomore Savannah Borman, who normally competes solely on the vault, stepped up and scored a 9.700 on the bars and a 9.575 on the floor.

"She really came through for us on floor tonight," Lyst said. "I was really proud of her performance and it was definitely exciting to see her step up in that role."

You can click here to see each gymnast's final score from Monday.

Arizona's win gave them a full point in the Territorial Cup Series standings, but ASU still leads the overall score, 4.5-3.5.

The Gym Devils have a quick turnaround before their next meet, which will be Friday, Feb. 20 against Oregon State at 7 p.m.

That meet will be at Wells Fargo Arena, where ASU hasn't competed since Jan. 31.

 

Reach the reporter at mtquesad@asu.edu or follow @mitchTquesada on Twitter.

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