ASU has automatic regionals bid at risk

 by Sarah McLellan
 published on Friday, March 28, 2008

Deanna Dent / THE STATE PRESS

FLIP IT: Junior Tia Orlando does a flip on the bar during a meet against Boise State and Penn State earlier this season.

It's that time of the season for the ASU gymnastics team when the sports clichés begin to be tossed around.

Crunch time, time to step up, time to deliver.

The barrage of terms to describe the postseason isn't fazing the No. 19 Sun Devils, who are competing in the Pac-10 Championships in Seattle on Saturday.

Instead, the team is looking forward to the meet.

"We're pretty excited," said ASU coach John Spini.

The team will need to channel that excitement into a high road score, as this is its last chance to boost up its regional qualifying score.

The importance of ASU's RQS mark was heightened this week when the national rankings were announced and the Sun Devils found themselves one spot out of the top 18 who receive automatic berths to the NCAA Regionals.

"We feel that we can do really well," said junior Tiana Jean. "We just have to all be on the same page."

Finding that common ground may be a little more difficult this meet with the change in rotations.

The Sun Devils will start on floor, move to vault, follow up on bars and end on beam. Three bye rounds will also be included in the rotation.

"[Floor's] a hard event to start on," Spini said, explaining that the scores in the event tend to increase as the meet wears on.

But considering the Sun Devils' recent performances, it shouldn't be too difficult to adapt.

The team notched its highest road score of the season (195.5) last week against Missouri, a huge reason to its jump in the rankings from the No. 23 slot. ASU also posted its best beam score of the season in the meet, a 49.25. The team is ranked 13th nationally in the event.

"We're as good as they come on beam and floor right now," Spini said.

The confidence rippling through the team is a realistic cause to the consistency in those events.

"Their work ethic has just been great," Spini said. "They look so much more mentally stable as a team."

It's a collective effort, a uniting factor that's proving to be crucial for the Sun Devils as the season winds down and the stakes become higher.

"There's no go-to person," Spini said. "Everybody's chipping in. We're just working hard right now."

Reach the reporter at: sarah.mclellan@asu.edu.