STANFORD, Calif. – The No. 21 Stanford women's gymnastics team makes its much-anticipated home debut Sunday by hosting No. 2 UCLA (5-0) in Maples Pavilion at 4 p.m. For the first time since the program's inception in 1978, all four home competitions will be ticketed.
More than 3,000 tickets have been sold and a record crowd is expected to watch Stanford challenge the defending NCAA champions, who have scored 197+ in three consecutive meets for the first time in school history. The largest turnout for a Cardinal meet was 3,026 against Utah in 2014.
Stanford (5-1) won its first two meets on the road this season before dropping its Pac-12 opener at No. 12 Cal on Monday night. Stanford collected season-bests in every event.
Sophomore Kyla Bryant captured her third straight all-around title and has won eight events this season and 14 during her short career on The Farm. She ranks No. 12 nationally in all-around (39.475).
Kyla Ross of UCLA has also claimed three consecutive all-around crowns and ranks No. 4 (39.700).
Social Hour: Twitter @StanfordWGym Instagram @stanfordgymnastics Facebook stanfordwgym
TV/Live steam: The meet will be televised live by Pac-12 Network with Jim Watson (play-by-play) and Samantha Peszek (analyst). The meet is also available online at www.Pac-12.com/live or on the Pac-12 Now app.
Live scoring: GoStanford.com
Meet theme: Stanford will celebrate Women in Sports and Alumni Day. The first 500 fans through the doors will receive free t-shirts. More than 20 former Cardinal gymnasts are expected to attend.
Following the meet, both teams will sign posters in the main west concourse for 30 minutes.
Tickets: The ticket office will open Sunday at 2:30 p.m. and doors open at 3 p.m. Single meet tickets for UCLA, Utah and Washington at Maples Pavilion can be purchased in advance and online and are $10 for reserved seats and $8 for general admission. Meet day prices are $12 for reserved and $10 for general admission. Group (15 or more), senior and youth discounts are available.
On the rise: The Cardinal tallied a season-high 196.125 against Cal, marking just the seventh time in three years it has topped 196+. Stanford accomplished it three times last season against Cal (196.700), UCLA (196.650) and at the Pac-12 Championships (196.350). In 2017, the Cardinal scored 196.325 against Oregon State, 196.275 against Utah and 196.625 at the Pac-12 Championships.
Stanford posted season-highs on vault (49.150), bars (48.800), beam (49.000) and floor (49.175). As a team, the Cardinal ranks 11th on beam and 12th on floor, recording season-bests of 49.000 and 49.175, respectively.
Standouts: Several Cardinal competitors matched career-highs: senior Hailee Hoffman on floor (9.850), junior Aleeza Yu on vault (9.850), Bryant on beam (9.900) and floor (9.925) and freshman Grace Waguespack on bars (9.800).
Youth is served: The 17-member Cardinal roster features 11 underclassmen, including five first-year student-athletes. Rookies Morgan Hoang (floor), Wesley Stephenson (bars, beam), Waguespack (bars) and Madison Brunette (bars) have competed. Hoang collected her first collegiate title in a tri-meet against Sacramento State and Seattle Pacific by scoring 9.875 in floor exercise.
Post-meet comments: Second-year head coach Tabitha Yim assessed her squad's performance after the Cal meet and felt good about its performance.
On toughness: "We showed a lot of heart, grit and growth. If we can continue building in that way, I think we will be able to achieve our goals this season."
On the strides made by her team: "Our sophomores got a lot of experience last year and it's really starting to show. When they perform, they look like veterans out on the floor. It's nice to see their consistency and confidence grow."
On unsung contributors: "Aleeza Yu. She helped build the bar lineup in that third position, which is huge. The same thing on vault. She just brings that international flair and look to our lineups, which is really important, especially on those events.
"Grace Garcia came up big in the last vault under pressure. She's working that new 10.000 start value vault and I was really proud of her for stepping up. Hailee Hoffman, too.
"We switched our lineup because we wanted to put our more experienced veterans in earlier to take some of the pressure off the newer people, and that allowed some of them in the back to excel."
Season rankings/team-highs
STANFORD (21) 196.125
UCLA (2) 197.775
Vault
STANFORD (16) 49.150
UCLA (6) 49.175
Uneven Bars
STANFORD (34) 48.800
UCLA (2) 49.700
Balance Beam
STANFORD (11) 49.000
UCLA (3) 49.475
Floor Exercise
STANFORD (12) 49.175
UCLA (1) 49.700
Starting Lineups (tentative)
Vault
1. Kaylee Cole
2. Taryn Fitzgerald
3. Kyla Bryant
4. Rachael Flam
5. Aleeza Yu
6. Grace Garcia
Uneven Bars
1. Taylor Lawson
2 Grace Waguespack
3. Aleeza Yu
4. Kyla Bryant
5. Madison Brunette
6. Rachael Flam
EXH: Wesley Stephenson
Balance Beam
1. Kaylee Cole
2. Wesley Stephenson
3. Taylor Lawson
4. Kyla Bryant
5. Taryn Fitzgerald
6. Rachael Flam
EXH: Ashley Tai
Floor Exercise
1. Kaylee Cole
2. Hailee Hoffman
3. Rachael Flam
4. Taylor Lawson
5. Morgan Hoang
6. Kyla Bryant
