Kyla Ross, Katelyn Ohashi's perfect 10s…
Kyla Ross, Katelyn Ohashi's perfect 10s lead UCLA gymnastics to season high
By Thuc Nhi Nguyen | thnguyen@scng.com | Daily News
PUBLISHED: February 16, 2019 at 7:20 pm | UPDATED: February 16, 2019 at 7:31 pm
UCLA gymnast Kyla Ross competes during a meet against Arizona State at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
UCLA gymnast Gracie Kramer competes during a meet against Arizona State at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
UCLA gymnast Brielle Nguyen competes during a meet against Arizona State at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
UCLA gymnast Nia Dennis competes during a meet against Arizona State at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
UCLA gymnasts compete during a meet against Arizona State at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
UCLA gymnast Margzetta Frazier competes during a meet against Arizona State at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
UCLA gymnast Norah Flatley competes during a meet against Arizona State at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Coach Valorie Kondos Field watches as UCLA gymnast Madison Kocian competes during a meet against Arizona State at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
UCLA gymnast Madison Kocian competes during a meet against Arizona State at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
UCLA gymnast Felicia Hano competes during a meet against Arizona State at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi competes during a meet against Arizona State at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Coach Valorie Kondos Field and her team react as UCLA gymnast Kyla Ross competes during a meet against Arizona State at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
LOS ANGELES — Kyla Ross didn't get the perfect 40-point all-around score she was hoping for, but she happily settled for the next best things Saturday: a career-high and a UCLA win.
Led by the junior's career-high 39.85 all-around score and the second straight week of perfect 10s from Ross and Katelyn Ohashi, on vault and floor, respectively, UCLA scored a season-high 198.025 to continue its undefeated season with a victory over Arizona, who scored 194.975 in front of 10,323 at Pauley Pavilion.
The Bruins are the third team in the country to score higher than 198, joining No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 2 Florida, but they did so despite posting a season-low score on beam, where they nearly counted a fall.
"I feel like we should be scoring in mid-198 every single time," head coach Valorie Kondos-Field said. "They train like that, they have prepared like that, they are prepared to do that. I feel like we're ramping up to that. They just really need to believe it."
Ross is hitting her stride with back-to-back career-highs in the all-around and perfect 10s on vault. The 2012 Olympic gold medalist increased her nation-leading all-around score and posted the fourth-highest mark in school history.
When told of her new place in the school's history books, the junior whispered "wow" under her breath.
On Saturday, she moved into a tie for fourth in UCLA history with nine career perfect 10s: five on bars, two on beam and two on vault.
"Bars and beam are my two strengths last year and I've worked really hard this preseason to bring up vault and floor," said Ross, whose all-around score was the highest at UCLA since 2004. "To have those be such great events this year, it just shows how much hard work I've put into it and I'm really happy to be able to go out and hit those routines for my teammates."
Ross nearly notched her first perfect 10 on floor, settling for a 9.95. She thought Saturday would be her day to complete the "gym slam" with perfect 10s on all four events, but she took a tiny hop while landing her final tumbling pass. If Ross can add a perfect 10 on floor during her career, she could be the first UCLA gymnast to complete the set since 2005.
"She's like the G.O.A.T.," Ohashi said of Ross, who won the vault, bars, beam and all-around titles Saturday.
RELATED: How UCLA gymnastics turns floor exercise into an art
Ohashi scored her third 10 this season on floor, winning the event and anchoring UCLA's season-best 49.75 on floor. The Bruins needed the strong floor rotation, which also included scores of 9.925 or higher from Ross, Margzetta Fraizer, Felicia Hano and Gracie Kramer, to bounce back from an uncharacteristic beam performance.
Freshman Norah Flatley had her first fall of the year on beam, and Ohashi, who had not scored lower than 9.9 on the event this year, nearly fell on her tumbling series. The senior who competed in the anchor position saved the skill by lifting a leg off the beam, settling for a significant deduction and a 9.8, her lowest beam score since Jan. 6, 2018.
The Bruins posted a season-high 49.425 on vault, led by Ross' perfect score and a 9.9 from Hano, and nearly matched their season-high on bars with a 49.625, just 0.075 behind its top mark this year on the event. UCLA recorded five scores of 9.9 or higher on bars in a rotation that was so strong that the team dropped Hano's 9.875 career-high from the final tally.
UCLA has eight perfect 10s this year, the most for any team in the nation. Top-ranked Oklahoma is the next closest team with three.
The winners of the last three NCAA titles match up March 3 in Norman, Okla., after UCLA travels to Salt Lake City to face conference foe Utah on Feb. 23.
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Thuc Nhi Nguyen
Thuc Nhi Nguyen has covered UCLA for the Southern California News Group since 2016. A proud Seattle native, she majored in journalism and mathematics at the University of Washington. She likes graphs, animated GIFs and superheroes.
Follow Thuc Nhi Nguyen	@thucnhi21
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