Feb. 24, 2018
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - It was only fitting that senior Briannah Tsang (Vancouver, British Columbia) recorded a career-best score in the all-around on Senior Day Saturday at Rec Hall. For Tsang, she recorded a 9.900 on the vault, a 9.850 on the uneven bars, a 9.900 on the balance beam, and a 9.950 on the floor exercise en route to a career-best tally of 39.600.
In the team results, No. 18 George Washington (13-5) would go on to capture a 196.475-196.150 victory over the No. 28 Penn State women's gymnastics team (4-5, 1-4 Big Ten).
"Lots of really good things tonight, I thought we started the meet so strong on vault and carried that right into bars," head coach Sarah Brown said. "We still are struggling to find our confidence on beam, so we had some mistakes there that we have seen throughout the year. I think because we have seen those mistakes before, we knew we could finish the meet out strong on floor. It was amazing to send out our seniors with a season best team score and also on vault and floor."
As a team, the Nittany Lions recorded a season-best overall score of 196.150, and season-best scores on vault (49.125) and on floor exercise (49.350).
The Nittany Lions opened the meet with a season-best score 49.125 on vault. For the Nittany Lions on the opening apparatus, Tsang captured her fifth vault title of the season as she led the way with a season-best 9.900. Along with Tsang, freshman Lauren Bridgens (Darnestown, Md.) and junior Sabrina Garcia (Etters, Pa.) both recorded top-five finishes, as Bridgens took third with a 9.850, while Garcia tied for fourth as she tied a season-best 9.825. After the first rotation, Penn State led George Washington, 49.125-48.925.
The second rotation saw Penn State post a 49.325 on the uneven bars, which ties its second-best score of the season on bars. On the uneven bars, five Nittany Lions posted a 9.800-or-better. The duo of Bridgens and Garcia paced the Nittany Lions on the event, as they each tied a season-best score of 9.925 for a share of the event title.
In addition to Bridgens and Garcia, Tsang tied for third (9.850), Kristen Politz (Morganville, N.J.) set a season-best score of 9.825 to tie for fifth and Tess McCracken (Plano, Texas) tied a career-best 9.800 to round out the scoring for Penn State with a seventh-place finish. After the second rotation, PSU led GW, 98.450-97.975.
Penn State then went to the balance beam during the third rotation where it posted a score of 48.350. The balance beam saw Tsang finish second as she tied a season-best 9.900, while Bridgens and Mason Hosek (Pearland, Texas) each tied for third with a 9.850. With three rotations complete, George Washington led Penn State, 147.225-146.800.
The Nittany Lions completed the meet with a season-best 49.350 on the floor exercise. Tsang closed out the day as she tied a career-best 9.950 to tie for the floor title with George Washington's Camille Drouin-Allaire. Tsang's score of 9.950 tied the No. 5 score in school history on floor. Also on floor, Garcia tied a career-best 9.900 to place third, while Bridgens and Peyton Schuller (Erie, Pa.) tied for fifth-place (9.850). For Schuller, she tied a career-best performance.
In the all-around, Tsang won her 17th career title with a career-best score of 39.600. Along with Tsang, Bridgens also set a career-best score of 39.475 to place third.
In all, the Nittany Lions set or tied 12 career-best performances on the day.
Up next No. 28 Penn State heads to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to take on Pittsburgh & No. 29 West Virginia on March 4. The meet is slated for a 2 p.m. start at the Fitzgerald Field House.