The ASU gymnastics team's home matchup with No. 12 Stanford Friday was bittersweet in more ways than one.
Bitter in that it was the first of what could be a number of meets without freshman all-around performer Tia Orlando, who sat out with an injured foot suffered last week against Utah. The team endured a season-high five falls, plus two more by exhibition performers. And for the second straight meet, the No. 10 Sun Devils lost at home, 196.325-195.725, after holding a lead through multiple events.
On the sweet side, however, ASU's team score still bested its season average (194.931) entering the meet, thus the team likely won't slip in the national rankings. The Sun Devils enjoyed their best team score of the season on vault (49.475), which was also the second-highest team score in the nation entering the weekend. Senior Ashley Kelly won her 17th career all-around title and second of the season with a 39.675 score, which was the highest all-around mark in the country entering the weekend.
"The meet really looked worse than it was," ASU coach John Spini said. "We had to count a full point in falls, while [Stanford] had a perfect meet and beat us by four-tenths [of a point]."
The Sun Devils, who had improved their team score in each of their initial four meets, looked to extend that streak after their spectacular showing on vault, as five of the six vaulters enjoyed individual season highs. Kelly, along with juniors April Boone and Cassandra Jusino, scored 9.9 or higher. One judge gave Kelly a perfect 10 on her vault, while the other scored her vault a 9.5, leaving Kelly with a 9.975 score to win the event.
"That's what we do everyday in the gym; it's just the first time we've shown you guys," Kelly said. "It was a great night on vault. We were all on."
The Sun Devils suffered no mistakes on the uneven bars, though none of their scores reached 9.9, including a modestly scored 9.875 routine by Kelly that energized the crowd. Still, ASU lead 98.475-98.400 after two events.
Things began to unravel for ASU on the beam, however, as senior Lauren Powell began the event with a fall while performing a newly implemented flip in her routine. Freshman Nicole Harris - who won the all-around in two of ASU's first four meets - then fell off the beam twice on her routine, earning an 8.875 and forcing ASU to count Powell's fall.
A bad night for Harris nearly turned nightmarish when she took a nasty rolling fall on her head during her first tumbling pass of the floor exercise, prompting Spini to cut the music and stop her routine, which was not scored at all.
"Nicole is one of those kids that's going to win many meets for us," Spini said. "She just wanted to do really good for the team [with Orlando out], and I think she got frustrated with herself. I just didn't want to see her take another fall on that routine."
Boone and Kelly then wowed the crowd with scores of 9.925 and 9.900, respectively. But ASU's final competitor, freshman Ashlee Hinkle, endured a fall of her own, which was counted toward the Sun Devils' score.
Reach the reporter at christopher.drexel@asu.edu.
