The ASU gymnastics team fell just short against UA on Friday, losing by less than two points at the McKale Center in Tucson.
The Sun Devil’s shaky performance on the balance beam was the deciding factor in the meet, which was tied at 96.825 after two events.
“I feel like our energy was really great, but then once we went to beam people were nervous and trying too hard to get past UA,” senior Beaté Jones said. “We were really nervous and thought too much.”
ASU came out of the gates hot with a solid showing on the uneven bars, earning a total score of 48.600 to grab the early lead over the Wildcats.
“We went out there and hit everything we could on bars,” ASU coach John Spini said. “Then, we went over and vaulted mediocre. But we didn’t give it away, so after two events we were tied.”
After the vault, ASU went to the floor exercise. They posted a total score of 48.425, which put the Sun Devils just 0.375 points behind UA heading into the final event.
“I don’t think we did anything terrible on floor, but we definitely didn’t do anything to help ourselves,” Spini said.
ASU could not make up the deficit on the balance beam, where they had three falls en route to the 193.625-192.050 loss.
“We felt the pressure [heading into beam],” Spini said. “[Historically], this is a stellar event for us, and we’re going to get there. We just have to keep working hard at it, and put ourselves in a situation where we enjoy that pressure, not worry about it.”
The Sun Devils believe they have a deep and talented squad, but all the pieces just haven’t come together yet during competition.
“We just need to be consistent and confident and we need everyone to hit [their routines] at the meet when it counts, not just at practice,” Jones said.
ASU plans to work to increase its confidence through competition-like situations at practice.
“We just need more pressure sets and we just need to keep building up as a team together,” sophomore Christina Salavec said. “[We have to] just keep doing what we’ve been doing … people are slowly building confidence. We know we’re a good team.”
Even with the disappointment that comes from a loss to the rival Wildcats, ASU is optimistic about the progress they have made since the beginning of the season.
“We didn’t do as well as we expected to, but we did a lot better than we did at the Pac-10 Preview,” Salavec said. “I’m excited for the rest of the season.”
ASU’s next competition will be on Friday, when they host Brown University.
“We’re just going to keep working at it and take this as a learning step,” Spini said. “Yeah, you want to beat UA, your big rival, and we were close, but we just can’t do beam like that and win a meet.”
Reach the reporter at kyle.j.newman@asu.edu
