Early Falls Cost UCLA Gymnastics, Bruins Lose Dual-Meet to Arizona State

Errors on bars set the Bruins back and they were ultimately unable to recover to best the Sun Devils.

The Bruins fell off the bars, the beam and back to Earth in Tempe on Sunday afternoon.

No. 15 UCLA gymnastics (2-5, 1-4 Pac-12) fell to No. 20 Arizona State (3-3, 3-2) in a dual-meet, losing 197.800-195.475 for their second-lowest score of the season. Between the uneven bars and balance beam, the Bruins were forced to count three falls against their score, starting with a run of misses on bars in the first rotation that set them back for the rest of the day.

High marks on floor and vault were far from enough to save UCLA from its own mistakes, and the team wound up slipping back closer to its historically poor season-opening performance than its bounce-back outings from earlier in February.

Sophomore Chae Champbell led off the opening rotation with a 9.850 and senior Norah Flatley led the way on bars with a 9.925 in the fifth spot. Everything in between and after is where things went wrong for UCLA, as freshman Ana Padurariu, freshman senior Sara Taubman and freshman Jordan Chiles all fell.

Because of the run of mistake after mistake, not only did Chiles' 9.300 have to count, but so did Taubman's 8.950, adding up to a mere 47.825 for the team on bars. The Bruins went down by nearly 1.500 points through just one rotation, getting stuck with its worst score on a single event since 2011, and it was a hole they were unable to dig out of.

That wasn't for a lack of trying, though – UCLA set a new season-high on bars with a 49.325, with Chiles posting a 9.900 while freshman Emma Malabuyo and senior Sekai Wright each went for 9.875. 

On floor, Chiles earned a split decision from the judges – one of which scored her routine as a perfect 10 – to put up a 9.975. Malabuyo came through with another hit, scoring 9.900, while freshman Brooklyn Moors joined in with a 9.900 of her own.

The Bruins wound up scoring a 49.400 on floor, once again surpassing their season average and approaching their best performance of the year.

However, the Sun Devils still led by 1.725 heading into the fourth and final rotation, meaning UCLA had actually lost ground despite the mid-meet resurgence. The Bruins would need to make up that chasm on beam, on which they ranked No. 10 in the nation entering the weekend.

UCLA fell far from that mark Sunday, even after Flately, Chiles and Malabuyo opened things up with a 9.875, a 9.875 and a 9.900. Moors fell, which was immediately made up for by senior Kendal Poston's 9.900, but then senior Samantha Sakti fell on the final routine and got stuck with a 9.375.

Even if the Bruins had matched their highest team score from the season, the Sun Devils still would have won – they had 11 individual scores of 9.900 or higher throughout the course of the meet. But the blue and gold had major mishaps rear their ugly head after seemingly getting buried over the past few weeks.

Malabuyo, did who hit on all four of her routines, came in third on the all-around thanks to her low 9.800 on bars. Chiles came in fourth out of four all-around participants thanks to her own issues on bars, even if she more than recovered to impress in other disciplines later on in the day.

UCLA will return home for the remainder of the regular season, with its next meeting coming against Washington at Pauley Pavilion next Sunday at 2 p.m.

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