ASU hosted No. 5 UCLA on Saturday afternoon and hit 194+ for the first time in 2017 but were ousted by the Bruins 197.150-194.600.
This was the second straight conference loss for the Sun Devils (2-5, 0-2 Pac-12). The Bruins (3-1, 2-0 Pac-12) were led by 2016 Olympic gold medalist Madison Kocian, who had an all-around score of 39.625 and came in first in beam and floor.
What a day for @MadisonKocian! 9.95 on beam, and she finishes with a new career-high of 39.625 in the all-around! pic.twitter.com/Vvj8NMKGg6
— UCLA Gymnastics (@uclagymnastics) February 4, 2017
However, the Sun Devils recorded five individual scores of at least 9.8 or higher and a season high in total points. Head coach Jay Santos said his team translated the execution from practice to the meet exceedingly well.
"We are close, maybe one more beam routine, clean some things up and we could've had a 20 for 24 today," Santos said.
An integral part of the success ASU had today was in part from the all-around performance of sophomore Katelyn Lentz. This is Lentz's second straight meet and third overall where she has competed in the all-around – she recorded a 38.950.
Santos was pleased with her performance after she recorded a season-high on both bars (9.750) and beam (9.800), a 9.750 vault.
"Katelyn did well, she just had that one mistake on the floor pass, where she second-guessed herself," Santos said. "She looked confident, I thought she did a good job."
The Sun Devils will travel to Seattle where they will take on the No. 18 Washington Huskies on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 3 p.m. MST.
Reach the reporter at jaramo12@asu.edu or follow hor_hay10 on Twitter.
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