Sacramento State women’s gymnastics look to redeem themselves from two loses against rival UC Davis as they prepare to compete against the Aggies for the third time this season on Saturday.

Freshman Jesse Williams said that she is looking forward to competing against Davis at The Nest.

“We thrive when we are in front of our home crowd,” Williams said. “The energy is much higher here.”

Prior to attending Sac State, Williams trained in Santa Clarita. At Waller’s GymJam Academy. In 2011, she competed at the Level 10 state meet where she placed fourth on bars and second on floor. She also placed second on the vault, beam, and all-around, one year prior.

“Winning against UC Davis would give us points we’d already lost,” Williams said. “It would give us the energy to win throughout the entire season.”

In 2012, sophomore Kaila Kilwein had career highs in the bars event and floor event with a 9.750 score on bars at Denver and a 9.825 on floor while competing against San Jose State. In 2011, she scored 9.600 or better during eight of her last nine routines. She also had the best of her season with with a score of 9.750 at Cal.

“It’s much more of a challenge competing against Davis this year, but we are up for the challenge,” Kilwein said. “We want to win so bad because we are in our home gym this time. We need a good practice the day before. We need to hit on our routines; the more confidence we have in practice, the more confidence we’ll have in competition.”

The team is not only looking to improve their record, but also to add points to the Causeway Cup. 

Sac State and Davis began the competition for the Causeway Cup in 2004, which is awarded to the team that earns the highest point total throughout the regular season meetings between the two.

The Cup is competed in 18 different sports between Sacramento State and UC Davis. Each sport is valued as one point each.

The Hornets look to snap their two game losing skid against Davis. On Jan. 4 they came in fourth place at a competition in San Jose that featured San Jose State, Stanford, and Davis. They also placed fourth on Feb.10 when they competed in Los Angeles against UC Davis, UCLA, and Washington. 

The Hornets will have their next two meets at home against UC Davis on Feb. 22 and Utah State on March 1. Both are at 7 p.m.

Dominic can be reached on Twitter at @sh_sports