There is no place better than home to earn the first win of the season, and that is the opportunity ASU gymnastics has as it hosts Brown University on Friday night.
“We’re definitely confident,” junior Amanda Davies said. “Even though we didn’t come back with a win from UA, we definitely took a step forward.”
ASU is coming off a close loss to the Wildcats in Tucson last weekend, where struggles on the balance beam cost the Sun Devils a victory.
“[We need to] clean up everywhere to win [Friday],” senior Brittany Schuett said. “Every little tenth from everybody’s routine will make the difference, and especially if our beam team can pull it together this week, we should be pretty solid.”
ASU has raised the intensity in practice in order to replicate the atmosphere of a real meet, and the Sun Devils hope this translates to more poise in the gym on Friday, especially on the beam.
“We’ve been doing a lot more routines under pressure,” freshman Emily Warfield said. “[Pressure sets] are when the whole team gathers around and watches everyone’s routine and cheers for you, so it’s more like a meet.”
These pressure sets in practice have helped build ASU’s confidence heading into Friday.
“Against Brown, I feel like we have a good chance of a definite win, and that’s kind of how everyone is feeling,” Davies said.
The Bears are not in the same elite class as most of the Pac-10 squads the Sun Devils usually face, but as usual, ASU is not concerned with the talent of its opponent.
“I haven’t even thought about the competition,” Schuett said. “It’s more about what we do in here as opposed to who we’re up against. There’s nothing we can do about them and how we’re going to get scored.”
ASU is keyed in on improving on its downfalls from the last meet, and has put in lots of repetitions throughout practice all week in order to improve on several weaknesses.
“We’ve changed our workout a little bit as far as what we do on beam and bars,” sophomore Amelia Rew said. “We’re really focusing on getting our confidence up and on our consistency, and just making sure those events are really solid.”
Making progress with every early meet has been important for the Sun Devils thus far.
“We’re really focused, and we’ve learned from our last couple meets,” Rew said.
Though ASU expects to get the win, they are more interested in putting up high scores on Friday night to prove they are one of the nation’s elite programs.
“We should easily win against Brown,” ASU assistant coach Kari Ward said. “But it’s more about getting our scores up, so we get respect when we go back to competing against the Pac-10.”
Reach the reporter at kyle.j.newman@asu.edu
Friday’s Matchup
Bears at Sun Devils
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Wells Fargo Arena
Bears Update: Brown last competed in a quad meet hosted by Rutgers on Jan. 22.
The Bears placed fourth behind Rutgers, North Carolina and Penn with a score of 184.725.
None of the Brown gymnasts finished in the top three of any events in the meet.
