Sacramento State avenged a home loss to Seattle Pacific on Feb. 15 by recording a 194.475-192.050 victory over the Falcons at Brougham Pavilion. The Hornets conquered their doubts on beam with a season-high 48.800 for the event. In three of the five previous meets, Sacramento State had five of six competitors fall off the apparatus. The Hornets are currently ranked 49th in the nation.

Cal (5-5) enters the contest ranked 40th nationally after falling on the road to No. 7 Stanford, 195.750-191.700, on Feb. 22 at Burnham Pavilion. It was the Golden Bears’ first meet since head coach Trina Tinti resigned on Feb. 20.

Sunday’s match-up will be the first contest between the two schools since a quad-meet on March 3, 2000 at Haas Pavilion. Cal State Fullerton outlasted the Hornets (194.425-194.275) for first while Cal (194.075) and San Jose State (191.525) rounded out the rest of the field. Toni Petersen finished with a meet and career-high 39.125 all-around to lead the Hornets. Leila Khoury led Cal with an all-around score of 39.050.

Since joining the Division I ranks in 1992, the Hornets are 2-4 all-time against the Golden Bears.

HEAD COACH KIM HUGHES

After 19 years, head coach Kim Hughes has built a program from the ground up and has solidified Sacramento State as a contender in the NCAA West Region.

With a career record of 163-160-1, Hughes has led the Hornets to consecutive Western Independent Conference championships in 2000 and 2001. He will now lead his program into the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in 2002.

Hughes also guided Sacramento State to a second-place finish at the National Invitational Tournament in 2000 and gave the program its first Regional bid in 1999 while also being named NCAA Region 1 Coach of the Year.

THE CAL GOLDEN BEARS

Assistant coaches Jennifer Bialoski and Steve Wilken have assumed the coaching duties on an interim basis for the Golden Bear gymnastics program following the resignation of head coach Trina Tinti on Feb. 20. Cal’s executive associate athletic director for Olympic sports, Teresa Kuehn, will handle the administrative responsibilities.

Tinti had compiled a 47-59 overall record in her four-plus seasons with Cal including 14 school records (10 team, four individual) and NCAA Region I Head Coach of the Year honors in 2000.

This season, the Golden Bears are led by freshman all-arounder My-Lan Dodd and junior Lisa Arnold. Dodd, a native of Seattle, recorded a 39.225 all-around to lead Cal against Stanford. Arnold, a native of Marina, Calif., posted a 9.7 on floor against the Cardinal.

PRVIOUS MEET RECAP

Freshman Nirvana Zaher recorded a career and program-high 9.925 on beam to lead the Hornets to a 194.475-192.050 win over Seattle Pacific Friday evening at Brougham Pavilion. The team''s mark was the second-highest score in program history.

The Hornets raised their record to 5-4 on the year while the Falcons fell to 2-5.

Zaher, a native of Cairo, Egypt, also recorded a season-high 9.75 on floor.

The team''s score of 48.800 on beam was a season high and also broke the 48 point barrier for the first time this season. In three of the last five meets, the Hornets had five of six competitors fall off the apparatus.

Junior Toni Petersen placed first on bars with a score of 9.825. The Fresno, Calif., native also placed first in the all-around with a score of 38.900. It is the fourth-consecutive meet in which she has led the squad in all-around competition.

Baisdon tied for second on bars with a score of 9.75. It was the first time she had finished in the top spot in an event this season.

Freshman Stefanie Aeder placed second on vault with a career-high 9.725 and third on floor with a 9.8.

Also placing well for the Hornets were freshman Meloney Greer (9.75, second) on bars and junior Jenny Diamond (9.65, third) on vault.

WELL WORTH THE TRIP

It has been a long and tedious process for freshman Nirvana Zaher in her first season with the Hornets program both in and out of the gym.

The road started with her brother Sherif, a member of the Sacramento State men’s tennis team, contacting head coach Kim Hughes and letting him know that she was interested in competing for the program after she moved to the U.S. from Cairo, Egypt. Zaher signed her letter of intent on May 18, of 2001 and was scheduled to enroll as a freshman in the Fall of 2001.

The first roadblock occurred when the British International School did not complete its final transcripts until after the eligibility deadline for Zaher to receive her student visa. She was then scheduled to arrive in Sacramento before the Hornets left to compete at the Maui Invitational on Jan. 4. Zaher’s arrival was delayed until Jan. 6 because her student visa and passport still had not been cleared on time. Once she arrived in Sacramento, Zaher was cleared by Sacramento State to attend classes and practice but her NCAA Clearinghouse transcripts held her out of competition for two more weeks.

The long road ended when Zaher made her debut at UC Davis on Feb. 1. Against the Aggies, she made her presence felt on the vault and floor by recording scores of 9.625 and 9.65, respectively. She was added to the beam squad on Feb. 10 against Boise State and joined the Hornets in their quest to stay on the apparatus. Zaher fell once against the Broncos and then fell three times against Seattle Pacific on Feb. 15 for a season-low score of 8.0.

In the rematch with the Falcons on Feb. 22, Zaher led the Hornets’ resurgence with a program-record 9.925 on beam and the team’s second-highest mark in program history. Zaher’s score shattered the previous mark of 9.875 set by sophomore Binta Coleman and former Hornet Elizabeth Lutz on March 24, 2001.

The freshman has also set season-highs in vault (9.675) on Feb. 15 and floor (9.75) on Feb. 22.

FAMILIAR FACES

Another reason for the squad’s improvement has been the reinsertion of seniors Wendy Baisdon and Melissa Prescott to the beam and bar rotations.

Baisdon, a native of Ceres, Calif., returned to the beam squad on Feb. 10 against Boise State and made her first appearance on bars against the Falcons on Feb. 15. Against the Falcons, Baisdon recorded a season high in both bars (9.75) and beam (9.625). She had not competed on bars since injuring her ACL on March 17, 2001.

Prescott, a native of Elk Grove, Calif., made her first appearance on the beam squad since spraining her ankle at the Maui Invitational on Jan. 4. She tallied a score of 9.75 which helped contribute to the team’s season-high score for the event. The senior had competed in two beam exhibitions in the last two meets but she only completed one full routine.

NEWS FROM THE INJURY FRONT

Senior Karen Sorensen, a three event specialist (bars, beam, floor), has sat out the past 12 weeks with a neck injury after falling off the uneven bars during a practice routine. Coaches say her return will be determined on a week-to-week basis.