On "Pink Meet" day in Tempe, ASU gymnastics gave a passionate performance but couldn't keep up with No. 10 UCLA's season-high 197.350 overall score.
The Bruins had a gymnast score meet-high in all four events and ASU was only able to score 194.250 points.
"I thought we were really tough," ASU head coach Rene Lyst said. "I thought we fought hard, I really like the fight of this team. We still had a few mistakes but we didn't count any major mistakes, so I thought overall it was a really good performance for us."
The Gym Devils certainly showed heart and determination throughout the meet, even though they never held a lead.
This year, ASU has been a team of moving on, moving forward and standing back up no matter how many times they fall.
Junior Carissa Kraus set that tone early when she aggravated an ankle injury on the Gym Devils' first rotation, the vault.
She struggled to even stand initially, but minutes later she scored a 9.825 on the bars for the Gym Devils, the team-high on the event.
"I love competing and I knew that I needed to do it for the team," Kraus said. "Mentally I was like, 'Pain is weakness leaving my body.' I knew that I had the skill to do it and doing it for my team was what pushed me through everything."
Kraus has been dealing with the injury since before the season started, and Lyst said it is easily aggravated when she lands off-balance.
"Unfortunately, it's still tender and she does that often in practice," Lyst said. "If she lands short, it takes her a few minutes to recover and then she's usually ready after a couple minutes. She did that today, she was great."
Later in the meet, the crowd at Wells Fargo Arena saw another example of resilience when junior Allie Salas fell off the beam, but then scored a 9.725 on the floor.
"I just had to think, 'Beam is over, time to move on'," Salas said. "I had to focus on the next event and I love floor, so it was easy to get over it and enjoy floor."
That's been the story of the Gym Devils this year, who continue to compete with the nation's best even though they have been consistently hurt and short-handed.
The Bruins took advantage and scored a season-high 197.350.
On vault, all six of their gymnasts scored higher than the highest scoring Sun Devil and on bars, six Bruins took the top-seven highest-scoring spots in the event.
Lyst said the focus isn't on the other team, it's on fixing the only routines ASU can control -- their own.
"We just have to clean it up," Lyst said. "(Junior) Kristine (Levin) got back on floor and had a couple of landing errors and we need to get her confidence back. Just those little details we need to keep refining."
Levin is an example of a gymnast stepping in where her team needs her. Before Saturday, she hadn't competed on the floor since Jan. 16.
And even in the face of a challenging meet Saturday, the Gym Devils continue to perform with optimism.
"I thought we did great at pushing through," Kraus said. "Every single girl had everybody's back no matter what. We all work hard every single meet and I'm proud of everybody."
Next, ASU will travel to Cedar City to take on Southern Utah on Friday, March 6 at 7 p.m.
You an click here to see full results from Saturday's meet against UCLA.
Reach the reporter at mtquesad@asu.edu or follow @mitchTquesada on Twitter.
Like State Press Sports on Facebook and follow @statepresssport on Twitter.
