Jan. 17, 2016
By Mandy Bell, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" Penn State women's gymnastics hosted its Big Ten opener against No. 9 Nebraska in front of a pink-out crowd Saturday afternoon in Rec Hall. Both teams sported pink leotards for the annual "Flip for the Cure" meet in support of breast cancer awareness.
Despite a 196.150-194.575 Nittany Lion setback, Penn State's Briannah Tsang had a standout performance as she tied Nebraska's Hollie Blanske for the all-around title.
"[Tsang] had an amazing night. That's just Bri. That's just what she does," head coach Jeff Thompson said. "We don't expect anyone to be perfect, but she always gives her best. She gives 100 percent every time she goes."
Tsang improved her score on three of the four events from last week's season-opening meet against North Carolina State. She began her stellar night by scoring a 9.850 on the vault. With this score, Tsang won her second straight vault title this season.
"Bri's vault was unbelievable," Thompson said. "We talked earlier in the week that she just needed to calm down and focus on what she does in the gym. Starting on vault, sticking the vault and getting a good score."
Tsang improved from her score of 9.175 on bars last week to a solid 9.775 against the Cornhuskers. She and Mason Hosek led the Nittany Lions on the balance beam with a score of 9.825.
"I guess my mindset was to come in and have fun and do what I do in practice," Tsang said. "I obviously wanted to improve from last time because no one wants to fall."
Tsang closed out her night on the floor exercise, tying for second with a season-best 9.850 and improved her all-around score to a 39.300 from last week's 38.050 to take home the title of co-all-arounder for the meet.
"I was glad to see Bri redeem herself after falling on floor last week," Thompson said. "It is one of her best events."
For the team score, the Nittany Lions needed a near-perfect routine from each of its gymnasts in the final rotation to surpass the Cornhuskers. Entering the floor exercise, Penn State was down 146.800-145.750. Sabrina Garcia, Kiera Brown and Jessica Jones scored a 9.750, 9.825 and a 9.500, respectively. Before Oni Timothy took the floor, there were complications at the scores table.
"Unfortunately for Oni, the judges had a mix up with the judging slips," Thompson said. "One of the judges had their sheets in the wrong order. They thought Oni was Jess Jones and they thought Jess was Oni and the whole time Oni is standing there waiting to go, waiting to go, waiting to go."
Timothy waited for about five minutes for the judges to figure out their judging slips before she was finally able to start her routine. Her five-minute wait was like a football coach calling a timeout right before a kicker goes for a long kick, just trying to "ice" the performer. She started her performance strong before taking a slight stumble mid-way through.
"[Timothy's] full-in was awesome. It was the best I have ever seen her do it by herself. Then in her second pass she just wasn't very good," Thompson said. "We will work on that. But overall, I am super proud of how the kids stick."
Although Thompson believes Saturday's meet was a good meet for where the team is so far in the season, he believes that pressure is going to be something his young team needs to work on.
"We just need to work on getting more consistent under pressure," Thompson said. "We need to figure out a way, as coaches, to get them to feel the same amount of pressure in practice as they do in meets."