No. 5 Spartans Travel to No. 6 UCLA for Top-10 Matchup Saturday
LOS ANGELES - No. 5 Michigan State gymnastics travels to Los Angeles on Saturday, Feb. 1 for one of the most highly-anticipated conference meets of the season, visiting sixth-ranked UCLA at 5:30 p.m. ET inside Pauley Pavilion.
Saturday's meet will be the first-ever live gymnastics meet on FOX.
NOTABLES
The Spartans enter Saturday's meet at 5-1 (2-0 B1G) after a 196.800-195.750 win at Ohio State on Jan. 24. MSU ranks fifth in the Week 4 RoadtoNationals rankings with an average team score of 196.950. The Spartans also set a season-high 49.450 on vault at Ohio State, which tied for the second-best vault score in the country this season, and now rank fourth as a team in the NCAA on the event with a 49.306 average. MSU also ranks sixth on bars (49.250), eighth on beam (49.169) and 12th on floor (49.225).
For the first time this season, MSU captured at least a share of every event title at Ohio State. Junior Nikki Smith won the vault title with a season-high tying 9.950 and earned a share of the bars title (9.850) with junior teammate Sage Kellerman. Senior Gabrielle Stephen won her first all-around title of the season with a 39.375 and scored 9.900s on beam and floor to win both titles. Senior Skyla Schulte shared the floor title with Stephen to win her second title in as many meets on the event.
Smith joined Stephen in the all-around at Ohio State, scoring a 39.250 to finish second.
Kellerman and Smith both rank in the top 10 in the NCAA on vault, with Smith sitting in second (9.919 average) after a 9.950 on the event in three of MSU's four meets this season and Kellerman in eighth (9.888). Kellerman also ranks 15th on bars nationally with a 9.881 average on the event. Schulte also ranks eighth on floor with a 9.912 average.
MSU also has a pair of all-arounders in the NCAA top 25 - Smith (20th, 39.387) and junior Olivia Zsarmani (25th, 39.313).
THE MATCHUP
UCLA sits just behind MSU in the Week 4 RoadtoNationals rankings with team score average of 196.888. The Bruins are 5-2 overall and tied with the Spartans and Minnesota at the top of the league standings at 2-0. After finishing third behind Cal and Oregon State in its season opener at the American Gold Classic, UCLA is 5-0. The Bruins have also posted the highest team score in the conference this season so far with two 197.550s (at Sprout's Collegiate Quad, at Maryland), just 0.050 ahead of MSU's season-best 197.500.
MSU and UCLA will meet for the first time since Jan. 12, 2019 on Saturday, where the then-No. 2 Bruins took first at the Collegiate Challenge in Anaheim, California with a 197.700. MSU finished third in that meet (194.900) behind UCLA and Cal and ahead of UC Davis.
Saturday will be the Spartans' first trip to Pauley Pavilion since a tri-meet with the Bruins and Cal State Fullerton on March 14, 2010. MSU finished second (195.950) behind the Bruins (196.525) at that meet. Current MSU associate head coach Nicole (Curler) Jones finished third in the all-around with a 39.125.
Overall, UCLA is 6-0 against the Spartans all-time and 3-0 against MSU at Pauley Pavilion.
UP NEXT
MSU returns home to take on Minnesota on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. inside Jenison Field House. The meet will stream on B1G+.
Preview courtesy of MSU Athletics.
