Jan. 9, 2016
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The No. 17 Penn State women's gymnastics team was edged 194.700-194.125 in its 2016 season opener by No. 27 North Carolina State Saturday evening inside Rec Hall. Six Nittany Lions made their debut Saturday, including five freshmen.
"The two events that we had the most concern for before the meet were vault and floor and the girls really rose up and did a great job there," head coach Jeff Thompson said. "The scores didn't really reflect that on vault but we knew that this was a tough panel which is great at the beginning of the year. We hit vault and floor, but the things we weren't worried about, bars and beam, are where we had our little mistakes. It's something that we can learn from because until you have those teachable moments, we can't advance."
Penn State opened the competition with a team score of 48.550 on the vault with Briannah Tsang (Vancouver, British Columbia) claiming her fifth career vault title. The sophomore tied North Carolina State's Chelsea Knight for the event win with their scores of 9.825.
Freshmen Sabrina Garcia (Etters, Pa.) and Mason Hosek (Pearland, Texas) added to the Nittany Lion score in the first rotation with top-five finishes. Garcia claimed third-place with a tally of 9.750 and Hosek finished fifth with her score of 9.700. After the first rotation, NC State led Penn State, 48.875-48.550.
Penn State followed up its performance on the vault with a team title on the uneven bars. The Nittany Lions claimed the top-three spots on the uneven bars with junior transfer Kiera Brown (Newport News, Va.) leading the way. The junior tied the number three score in school history with her score of 9.950.
Garcia added a second-place finish in the meet with a score of 9.850 on the uneven bars and Chanen Raygoza (Upland, Calif.) tied for third with a tally of 9.825. After capturing the first two event titles, Penn State led 97.575-97.300 heading into rotation three.
The Wolfpack found their stride on the balance beam as they claimed four of the top five places. Nicole Wild claimed the balance beam title edging Tsang by a margin of 9.900-9.850. Brown and Hosek added to the Nittany Lion score with fifth- (9.800) and sixth-place (9.775) finishes. NC State took back the lead after rotation three with a score of 145.625-145.525.
In final event in the competition for the Nittany Lions, the floor exercise, Penn State tallied three top-four finishes as freshman Jessica Jones (Canfield, Ohio) won her first career event title with a score of 9.850. Also on the floor exercise, sophomore Oni Timothy (Rochester, N.Y.) recorded a 9.775 to place third and freshman Peyton Schuller (Erie, Pa.) hit 9.750 to claim fourth.
NC State finished the meet strong tallying a 49.075 on the balance beam compared to a 48.600 on the floor exercise for Penn State during the final rotation.
Knight finished the day with the all-around title as she topped Brown by a score of 39.000-38.950.
The Nittany Lions are back in action Saturday, Jan. 16, against Nebraska inside Rec Hall. Start time is set for 4 p.m.
For information on purchasing 2016 season tickets fans can visit http://www.GoPSUsports.com/tickets or call 1-800-NITTANY weekdays from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.