PAC-10 NEWS 2009 PACIFIC-10 CONFERENCE WOMEN S GYMNASTICS. For Immediate Release: Wednesday, March 4, 2009 Contact: Nicole Goyette

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1 PAC-10 NEWS 1350 Treat Boulevard, Suite 500 Walnut Creek, California For Immediate Release: Wednesday, March 4, 2009 Contact: Nicole Goyette 2009 PACIFIC-10 CONFERENCE WOMEN S GYMNASTICS THIS WEEK IN THE PAC-10: Two of the top collegiate gymnastics programs of all-time will battle it out in a dual meet on Sunday, Mar. 8, when sixth-ranked and five-time NCAA champion UCLA (10-2) hosts top-ranked and nine-time NCAA champion Georgia (10-0). The meet will be televised live on Fox Sports Prime Ticket. Sunday's meet will match the only two gymnasts in the nation who have posted multiple perfect 10s this season - UCLA's Vanessa Zamarripa and Georgia's Courtney Kupets. Zamarripa has totaled perfect marks on vault three times this season, including two in consecutive meets on Feb. 15 and Feb. 22. Kupets also has three perfect 10s on the season, but on three different apparatuses: bars, beam and, for the first time in her career, floor. But the NCAA Championships preparation jump starts on Friday, Mar. 6, when No. 3 STANFORD visits fifthranked Alabama. The Crimson Tide jumped six places in the national rankings this week after posting its highest score of the season ( against Auburn on Friday) and its highest road score of the year ( at Penn State) during a three-day span. Alternately, a loss to unranked San Jose State on Friday was the first for Stanford (13-1) after opening the season at 12-0, and first to San Jose State (12-1) in their annual series since The score (193.95) was a season-low for Stanford after a streak of three consecutive meet scores that exceeded 197. Also on Friday, Mar. 6, No. 22 WASHINGTON will meet No. 9 OREGON STATE for the 111th time in program history at the Salbasgeon Suites Invitational tri-meet with Seattle Pacific. Though the Beavers hold the all-time series advantage at 83-27, the Huskies snapped a six-year, 12-meet losing streak when the two teams last met two weeks ago. The CALIFORNIA Bears face three opponents this week during a trip to Michigan. On Friday they will compete in Kalamazoo against the Western Michigan Broncos, a squad that is 1-16 on the season but coming off of its strongest meet of the year where they posted a season-high team total of The Broncos currently have an RQS of , below Cal's The No. 16 ARIZONA Wildcats, currently on a four-meet win streak, return to McKale for their last home meet of the season, hosting Denver. The Pioneers will be facing their 10th ranked opponent this season behind senior Jessica Lopez who leads the team in all individual averages but floor exercise. No. 2 Utah hosts longtime rival ARIZONA STATE (2-5). The Utes, out with a bye last week, meets an ASU team coming off its best win of the season against Washington. On Sunday, Mar. 8, the Golden Bears will compete in a tri-meet against Michigan State and Ball State. Michigan State fell out of the top-25 this week with an RQS of Ball State posts a average, ranking it No. 49. PAC-10 CHAMPIONSHIP TICKETS ON SALE: Tickets are now on sale for the Pacific-10 Conference Women's Gymnastics Championships, which will be held at Stanford's Maples Pavilion on March 21 at 4 p.m. Prices are $8 for adults, $5 for students, youths, and seniors, and $3 each for groups of 10 or more that have pre-ordered. For additional information, call 800-STANFORD or visit gostanford.com.

2 Pac-10 Women s Gymnastics Release/March 4, 2009! Page 2 COMPETITION SCHEDULE, MAR. 2-8: *All times are Pacific Friday, March 6 CALIFORNIA at Western Michigan, 4 p.m. STANFORD at Alabama, 5:30 p.m. Denver at ARIZONA, 6 p.m. ARIZONA STATE at Utah, 6 p.m. Seattle Pacific/WASHINGTON at OREGON STATE (Salbasgeon Suites Invitational), 7 p.m. Sunday, March 8 Ball State/CALIFORNIA at Michigan State, 11 a.m. Georgia at UCLA, 2 p.m. PAC-10 GYMNAST AND EVENT SPECIALIST OF THE WEEK (Feb Mar. 2): Arizona State s Beaté Jones and Oregon State junior Mandi Rodriguez garnered this week s Pac-10 Gymnast of the Week and Special Performance of the Week honors, Commissioner Tom Hansen announced today. Jones had a career night against Washington last weekend that culminates in her first career Pac-10 Gymnast of the Week honor, while Rodriguez merits Pac-10 Special Performance of the Week for flirting with perfection on the floor exercise against Conference heavyweight UCLA. The accolades are for the week of Feb. 24-Mar. 2. Jones, from Neptune, N.J., has been a sparkplug for the Sun Devils this season and a model of consistency. The sophomore garnered first place finishes in three contests and three career high event scores on a night that placed her atop the all-around podium. Jones nailed her landing on vault to win the event with a Attacking the bars in the next rotation, she scored her first career high of the evening to the tune of On beam Jones nailed a 9.8 and tied her career best for the second time this season. Rounding out the competition on floor, Jones earned the second 9.9 of her career, won the event, and sealed her all-around victory. Her meet total of 39.4 is a personal record for Jones; it is also the highest all-around score of the year for any Sun Devil. With the leadership Jones provided against Washington, the Sun Devils amassed their best score ( ) and second win of the season. Rodriguez posted a season-high on vault and added a near perfect 9.95 on the floor exercise to win both individual titles in Friday night s showdown with then-no. 4 UCLA. The individual wins give the Baldwin Park, Calif., product 18 titles in She now sits second in the nation on the floor exercise and fourth on vault. The individual rankings make Rodriguez the only gymnast in the Conference to place in the top 5 on two or more events. Rodriguez s 9.9+ dominance helped the Beavers surpass the 196-point mark for the fifth time in six weeks; Oregon State remains ranked among the top 10 for the fifth consecutive week. ALSO NOMINATED: Gymnast of the Week: Bree Workman, ARIZ; Sophia Hocini, CAL; Jami Lanz, OSU; Vanessa Zamarripa, UCLA. Special Performance of the Week: Katie Matusik, ARIZ (BB); Nicole Harris, ASU (BB); Bridgette Glass, CAL (UB); Aisha Gerber, UCLA (BB)) Pac-10 Gymnasts of the Week: Jan Carly Janiga, STAN; Jan Vanessa Zamarripa, UCLA; Jan Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, UCLA; Feb. 3 - Mandi Rodriguez, OSU; Feb Nicole Ourada, STAN; Feb Nicole Ourada, STAN; Feb Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, UCLA; Mar. 3 - Beaté Jones, ASU Pac-10 Special Performance of the Week: Jan Aisha Gerber, UCLA (BB); Jan Mandi Rodriguez, OSU (FX); Jan Vanessa Zamarripa, UCLA (V); Feb. 3 - Leslie Mak, OSU (BB, UB); Feb Leslie Mak, OSU (UB); Feb Vanessa Zamarripa, UCLA (V); Feb Vanessa Zamarripa, UCLA (V); Mar. 3 - Mandi Rodriguez, OSU (V, FX).

3 Pac-10 Women s Gymnastics Release/March 4, 2009! Page Preseason Coaches Poll PAC-10 NOTES: Including points and first-place votes ARIZONA - The Wildcats won their fourth straight meet, beating California 1. Georgia 814 (26) On the vault, the team put together it s highest score of the meet, 2. Utah 770 (2) posting a Bree Workman who won the event with a The senior continued her victory lap on floor courtesy of an event-high 9.8. On beam, freshman 3. Florida UCLA 699 (4) Katie Matusik contributed her own 9.8 to the Cats, good enough for the top mark 5. STANFORD 676 on that apparatus. With the win, Arizona captured its second straight over a Pac Alabama 640 opponent and fourth meet victory in the last three weeks. 7. LSU Michigan 579 (1) ARIZONA STATE - The Gym Devils defeated Washington in their sixth consecutive Pac-10 match-up, Beaté Jones shattered her career-high 9. OREGON STATE Oklahoma 525 in the all-around (39.4) and captured the win; Nicole Harris took second (39.275). 11. Nebraska 487 Harris tied her season high (9.875) and Kahoku Palafox tied a career-best 9.75 on 12. Arkansas 467 bars, an event on which the Sun Devils narrowly missed the 49-point mark (48.95). 13. Penn State 382 On beam, ASU compiled a season-high 49.2 after Harris collected first place with a 14. Denver 370 season-high and every gymnast in the event lineup hit 9.8 or higher. 15. Auburn Illinois 230 CALIFORNIA - The Bears posted their second highest team score of the season, 17. Michigan State but fell to Arizona. The contest marked the sixth time this season the 18. ARIZONA 218 Bears have competed against a team ranked in the top 25. Arizona swept the events, 19t. Boise State 216 posting the higher team total on all four apparatuses. But the Bears earned two individual wins: Bridgette Glass shined on her senior day with an event-high 9.8 on 19t. Missouri Ohio State 165 bars, and Sophia Hocini posted a career-high in the all-around for the second consecutive week. The score gave Hocini her first all-around title of the season. 22. Minnesota West Virginia ! ARIZONA STATE! ! Kentucky!! 84 Top-25 National Ranking as of Mar. 2 Ranking by Regional Qualifying Average 1. Georgia Utah STANFORD Florida Alabama UCLA Oklahoma Auburn OREGON STATE T. Arkansas T. LSU Nebraska Missouri Michigan Illinois-Champaign ARIZONA T. Ohio State T. Minnesota Penn State West Virginia Iowa State WASHINGTON Iowa Kentucky T. Kent State OREGON STATE After two weeks away, the Beavers returned to Gill Coliseum to perform for a crowd of 4,000+ and surpassed the 49-point barrier on all four events in a loss to UCLA. It is the fifth time this year that the team has scored over 196. Freshman Olivia Vivian tallied a career-best 9.75 on bars, her first performance after weeks of injury. Jami Lanz came through with one of her strongest beam routines of the season (9.875). The dynamic duo of Lanz and Mandi Rodriguez anchored the floor lineup to the tunes of and STANFORD - Miscues on the opening two rotations put Stanford into a hole it could not climb out of in a loss to unranked San Jose State in a tri-meet at UC Davis. The Cardinal suffered a blow when Carly Janiga withdrew from the meet after the opening event, in which she scored a to win the balance beam. In fact, Stanford won all four individual events. Nicole Ourada tied the top mark on floor with 9.9. Alyssa Brown and Shelley Alexander matched the event high of 9.85 on vault. And senior Kelly Fee captured the uneven bars with a 9.9, Stanford's only season-best score after 21 last week at Cal. UCLA Needing to score at least a on balance beam for UCLA to clinch the victory, Aisha Gerber came through with a to lead the Bruins to a win over Oregon State. With the Bruins suffering a fall just one routine prior to Gerber's, there was little room for error, and Gerber had little error in her routine. Vanessa Zamarripa won the all-around with a , while Ariana Berlin placed third with a season-high tying Berlin and Elyse Hopfner- Hibbs tied for first on bars (9.875), and Niki Tom, Zamarripa and Gerber tied for first on beam. WASHINGTON - The Huskies went forth into the desert to face off with Pac-10 foe Arizona State and posted a season-best road score of , but fell a half-point short to the Sun Devils. As a team, the Huskies won the vault, , but did not register a single individual event title against Arizona State. Washington also managed a season-high road score of on the beam. Several Huskies tied their season-high scores: Samantha Walior (9.775) and Kristen Linton (9.85) on bars, and Kelly Gilbert (9.8) and Linton (9.825) on beam.

4 Pac-10 Women s Gymnastics Release/March 4, 2009! Page 4 PAC-10 CONFERENCE INDIVIDUAL TOP-10 RANKINGS (courtesy of TEAM TOTALS: RQS Average High Team STAN UCLA OSU ARIZ WASH ASU CAL TEAM VAULT: UCLA STAN OSU ARIZ WASH ASU CAL TEAM UNEVEN BARS: STAN UCLA OSU ASU WASH ARIZ CAL TEAM BALANCE BEAM: STAN UCLA OSU ARIZ WASH ASU CAL TEAM FLOOR EXERCISE: OSU STAN UCLA ARIZ WASH ASU CAL VAULT: RQS Average High Name Vanessa Zamarripa, UCLA Mandi Rodriguez, OSU Ashley Houghting, WASH Aisha Gerber, UCLA Shelley Alexander, STAN Jami Lanz, OSU Bree Workman, ARIZ Alyssa Brown, STAN Beaté Jones, ASU Deanna Graham, ARIZ UNEVEN BARS: Carly Janiga, STAN Leslie Mak, OSU Jen Kesler, OSU Allyse Ishino, STAN Ariana Berlin, UCLA Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, UCLA Anna Li, UCLA Vanessa Zamarripa, UCLA Kristen Linton, WASH Kelly Fee, STAN BALANCE BEAM: Aisha Gerber, UCLA Carly Janiga, STAN Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, UCLA Jami Lanz, OSU Nicole Harris, ASU Laura-Ann Chong, OSU Briana Bergeson, ARIZ Allyse Ishino, STAN Shelley Alexander, STAN Mandi Rodriguez, OSU Heather Purnell, STAN Samantha Walior, WASH FLOOR EXERCISE: Mandi Rodriguez, OSU Jami Lanz, OSU Ashley Houghting, WASH Sarah Tomczyk, ARIZ Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, UCLA Mizuki Sato, UCLA Nicole Pechanec, STAN Beaté Jones, ASU Tiana Jean Danielle Ikoma, STAN Bree Workman, ARIZ ALL-AROUND: Mandi Rodriguez, OSU Jami Lanz, OSU Nicole Harris, ASU Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, UCLA Beaté Jones, ASU Vanessa Zamarripa, UCLA Colleen Fisher, ARIZ Sophia Hocini, CAL Alexis Greene, ARIZ Hatsune Akaogi, WASH

5 Pac-10 Women s Gymnastics Release/March 4, 2009!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Page Pac-10 Conference Composite Schedule Times listed are Pacific and subject to change Friday, January 2 Cancun Classic, 2:30 p.m. STANFORD ; OREGON STATE ; Denver ; BYU Friday, January 9 OREGON STATE ; BYU Utah ; UCLA WASHINGTON ; Alaska-Anchorage Saturday, January 10 Minnesota ; ARIZONA Sacramento State ; UC Davis ; CALIFORNIA Friday, January 16 Missouri ; ARIZONA STATE OREGON STATE ; Arkansas ; CALIFORNIA STANFORD ; WASHINGTON ; Sacramento State ; Seattle Pacific Sunday, January 18 UCLA ; ARIZONA Thursday, January 22 STANFORD ; ARIZONA STATE Friday, January 23 OREGON STATE ; ARIZONA Utah ; WASHINGTON UCLA ; Cal State Fullerton Sunday, January 25 UCLA ; CALIFORNIA Friday, January 30 STANFORD ; ARIZONA UCLA ; ARIZONA STATE Utah ; OREGON STATE Sunday, February 1 WASHINGTON ; Illinois State ; CALIFORNIA Friday, February 6 OREGON STATE ; ARIZONA STATE Saturday, February 7 WASHINGTON ; ARIZONA Sunday, February 8 UCLA at STANFORD, 2 p.m. - CANCELLED STANFORD ; UC Davis Friday, February 13 ARIZONA ; Brown ; Wisconsin- Stout ARIZONA STATE ; CALIFORNIA Sunday, February 15 ARIZONA ; Texas Woman s STANFORD ; OREGON STATE ; UC Davis UCLA ; Boise State ; WASHINGTON ; Cal State Fullerton Friday, February 20 ARIZONA ; ARIZONA STATE Saturday, February 21 WASHINGTON ; Illinois ; OREGON STATE ; Eastern Michigan Sunday, February 22 Nebraska ; UCLA STANFORD ; CALIFORNIA Friday, February 27 ARIZONA STATE ; WASHINGTON San Jose State 194.7; STANFORD ; UC Davis UCLA ; OREGON STATE Sunday, March 1 ARIZONA ; CALIFORNIA Friday, March 6 CALIFORNIA at Western Michigan, 4 p.m. STANFORD at Alabama, 5:30 p.m.

6 Pac-10 Women s Gymnastics Release/March 4, 2009!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Page 6 Denver at ARIZONA, 6 p.m. ARIZONA STATE at Utah, 6 p.m. Seattle Pacific/WASHINGTON at OREGON STATE (Salbasgeon Suites Invitational), 7 p.m. Sunday, March 8 Ball State/CALIFORNIA at Michigan State, 11 a.m. Georgia at UCLA, 2 p.m. Friday, March 13 OREGON STATE at Missouri, 5:30 p.m. Ball State/Cal State Fullerton/Nebraska at ARIZONA STATE (UNO s Classic), 6:30 p.m. CALIFORNIA/UC Davis/Seattle Pacific at Sacramento State, 7 p.m. Saturday, March 14 ARIZONA at Maryland, 1 p.m. Sunday, March 15 Nebraska at UCLA, 2 p.m. Denver at WASHINGTON, 2 p.m. Saturday, March 21 Pacific-10 Conference Championships, 4 p.m. Maples Pavilion, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. Televised on FSN on a tape-delay basis April 4 NCAA Regional Championships Coleman Coliseum, Tuscaloosa, Ala. (University of Alabama) Barnhill Arena, Fayetteville, Ark. (University of Arkansas, Fayetteville) Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Iowa City, Iowa (University of Iowa) Reynolds Coliseum, Raleigh, N.C., (North Carolina State University) St. John Arena, Columbus, Ohio (Ohio State University) Bank of America Arena, Seattle, Wash., (University of Washington) April NCAA Championships Bob Devaney Sports Center, Lincoln, Neb. (University of Nebraska, Lincoln)