Coming off its best meet of the season, the Sacramento State women’s gymnastics team will look to continue its momentum on Friday, Feb. 11, against UC Davis. The meet, which is the first of four matchups between the two schools this year, will begin at 7 p.m. at the Pavilion on the UC Davis campus.

Last week, the Hornets scored a season-high 193.200 to defeat San Jose State on Feb. 4. Sacramento State was the model of consistency, scoring 48.475 on its final three rotations. The Hornets also had three individual winners as Alexis Tsurumoto (bars), Melissa Genovese (beam) and Stefanie Aeder (floor) all finished in first place.

UC Davis comes into the meet with a 1-5 overall record. The Aggies began the year with a second-place finish against Cal and Brown before finishing fourth in a meet at Denver with North Carolina State and Boise State. In its most recent meet, UC Davis was defeated by Cal, 190.175-187.050. The Aggies have had little variance in their three scores, scoring between 187.050 and 187.475 in all three meets.

Friday’s meet will be the 47th all-time meeting between the two programs. Sacramento State currently leads 28-18 and has not lost to the Aggies since March 15, 2002 (193.400-192.125). Last year, UC Davis put a scare into the Hornets before Sacramento State held on for a 192.175-192.050 victory on Feb. 22. The Hornets won all four meetings last season against UC Davis, including a victory at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships at San Jose State.

• Head Coach Kim Hughes

In his 25th year at the helm of the Hornet gymnastics program, 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 and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

With a career record of 202-190-2, Hughes led the Hornets to back-to-back MPSF Championships in 2002 and 2003 before finishing second last season. He also directed Sacramento State to consecutive Western Independent Championships in 2000 and 2001. In 2002, Sacramento State recorded program highs with consecutive meets above 193 (four), most scores over the 194-plateau (four) and most scores over the 193-mark (eight) in a season. Those statistics helped Hughes earn the MPSF Coach of the Year award.

In 2004, Hughes led the team to its two best scores in school history. The top mark of 195.875 came at the Salbasgeon Suites Invitational at Oregon State. The team also set program records on the vault, beam and floor last season.

Among his other accomplishments, Hughes 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.

Hughes earned his first Coach of the Year honor in 1984 when the Hornets were a member of the Div. II Northern California Athletic Conference. A graduate of Chico State in 1976, Hughes joined the Sacramento State women’s gymnastics program in 1977 and was named head coach in 1981. During his tenure, Hughes also guided the Hornets to Div. I status in 1992.

• All Together

It took a little longer than the team expected, but Sacramento State finally achieved a fall-less meet on Friday night against San Jose State. In fact, the team’s lone fall of the night came on beam and they were able to drop that mark (9.30) as the low score.

As a direct result of not falling, the Hornets were able to record their top overall score of the season. The 193.200 was nearly a full point better than the previous high of 192.275 which came in the season opener at Cal State Fullerton. Sacramento State also scored season highs on bars and beam where it amassed 48.475 on each event.

• Four Out of Six Ain’t Bad

Tsurumoto and Aeder each found themselves in a familiar position on Friday, accepting first place for their respective events. The pair have each won four individual titles this year in the team’s six meets.

Tsurumoto, who redshirted last season after injuring her knee, has shown little signs of rust on bars during her first collegiate season. The Concord, Calif., native opened her career by winning at Cal State Fullerton and at home against Seattle Pacific. She snapped her streak with a fall against Brown but bounced back with a solid showing at UCLA. On Jan. 28 at San Jose State, Tsurumoto scored 9.800 to win bars and she repeated the feat against the Spartans on Feb. 4 with a 9.850. With the exception of the fall, all of our scores have been above 9.550 and she is currently averaging 9.592.

Aeder continued her domination of the floor exercise with a 9.775 against San Jose State. The senior, who reached the NCAA West Regional last season, has been the model of consistency this year. Four of her scores are above 9.850 with her “low” score being a 9.750. The only two meets in which Aeder has not owned the top score came at Cal State Fullerton and UCLA where the winning scores were both 10.000.

• Walking a Fine Line

After weeks of trouble on the balance beam, Sacramento State produced its best performance of the year against San Jose State on Feb. 4. The Hornets tallied a 48.475 on beam, eclipsing its previous season high of 48.150 set in the season opener at Cal State Fullerton. Helping the Sacramento State cause were strong showings from its three freshmen. Melissa Genovese led the way with a career-high 9.875 which won the event. The score was the best for a Hornet this year and was just the second mark above a 9.800. Fellow freshmen Hava McCarter-Ribakoff added a 9.675 and Nicole Giao scored a 9.625. McCarter-Ribakoff’s mark was her second highest of the season while Giao established a career high. Junior Kimiye Narasaki finished third on beam with a 9.775.

Following the opening meet, Sacramento State had its problems on beam. The team was plagued by falls and had only one score above a 46.000. During that four-meet span, the Hornets averaged 46.544.

• News and Notes

Carrie Kinghorn returned to the all-around lineup against San Jose State and scored 36.900…along with her career high on beam, Giao also topped her best mark on floor with a 9.675…senior Meloney Greer returned to the vault lineup for the first time since Jan. 16 and scored 9.500…senior Jessica Hoffman continued her steady performances with a 9.475 on vault, a 9.750 on bars and a 9.700 on floor…junior Trista Condren did not compete in the lineup for the first time this season against San Jose State on Feb. 4.

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