Sacramento State’s gymnastics team was within one point against the San Jose Spartans the entire meet but came up just short, losing 194.000 to 193.700 at the Hornets Nest. Despite falls in three of four events, the Hornets ended up scoring season-high records in two events. Returning for the first time this season due to injury, Alycia Chan started off her year dominating. She scored the highest vault of the meet with a 9.800. “It’s good to be back,” Chan said. “We’re really pleased [of] the fact that she can come out and perform after being off for a while,” said head coach Kim Hughes. The team’s combined score vault of 48.275 was a season-high, despite a rare mistake from Marina Borisova, recently named the Western Athletic Conference’s (WAC) Gymnast of the Week for the third time. “(It) makes me just happy to be recognized for what I’m doing,” Borisova said. In attempting an extraordinary vault jump she has done in past seasons, Borisova stumbled when landing and scored a 9.175. “I’m going to work even harder to get it,” said Borisova. The vault setback was the only blemish of an overwhelming night for Borisova; her other three scores were all above 9.800, leading Sacramento State in uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. “I was pissed at myself honestly. I had to somehow get my scores back,” Borisova. Sacramento State’s overall consistent performance in the uneven bars led to its second consecutive season-high score with 48.625, the highest event total of the meet for the Hornets. Thomasina Wallace had the single highest event score of the night, scoring a 9.900 on the uneven bars for the Spartans. Both teams had struggles on the balance beam, with Sacramento State and San Jose State each having two members suffer falls. Despite the two falls, the Hornets gained ground on the Spartans, large in part to Traci Takeda starting off the rotation with a 9.775 and Borisova ending the rotation with a 9.850. Borisova was the only gymnast who got upon the beam via springboard with a forward flip and led all scores in the event. San Jose State had its best rotation on the floor as it combined for a team total of 49.000. Four of the top five scores on the floor came from the Spartans, led by Wallace’s score of 9.875. “We had a lot of missed tumbling landings, not falls, on floors,” Hughes said. Wallace won the all-around with a score of 39.225 followed by fellow Spartan Veronica Porte’s score of 39.000. The loss left the Hornets with a record of 3-6 and 0-3 in the WAC. Sacramento State looks to rebound in their next meet at Cal State Fullerton on Sun, Feb. 22.

Mitchell Wilson can be reached at [email protected]