THIS WEEK IN SEAWOLF WOMEN'S BASKETBALL...
Fri., Jan. 4 — 7 pm AST — Alaska Airlines Center — Anchorage, AK
Illinois State (0-0) at Alaska Anchorage (0-0)
&
Sun., Jan. 6 — 2 pm AST — Alaska Airlines Center — Anchorage, AK
Illinois State at Alaska Anchorage
LIVE STATS: http://www.goseawolves.com/fls/13400/Gymnastics/20190104.htm (Fri.)
http://www.goseawolves.com/fls/13400/Gymnastics/20190106.htm (Sun.)
SOCIAL MEDIA: Check the @UAAGymnastics Twitter feed for in-meet updates & final scores.
2019 SEASON PREVIEW: The Seawolves return eight active gymnasts from last year's squad, along with a pair of athletes who redshirted due to injury ... of the team's five newcomers, four are true freshmen ... after ending last year with just 11 healthy gymnasts – and competing with fewer throughout much of season – UAA enters 2019 with 16 healthy bodies among its 17-woman roster.
2018 SEASON REVIEW: Despite entering the season with an injury-depleted lineup, the Seawolves continued to improve throughout head coach Tanya Ho's first campaign ... the Seawolves produced five dual victories and scored better than 190 in four of their last six meets, concluding with a season-best 192.200 at the MPSF Championships ... all-arounder Isabelle Fox was voted the MPSF Freshman of the Year and fellow rookie Hope Nelson tied the program record for uneven bars average at 9.713.
ALL-TIME VS. ILLINOIS STATE: ISU leads 6-0 overall
In Anchorage: ISU leads 2-0
Notes: ISU won the last meeting 188.825-186.150 on Jan. 21, 2018 in Normal, Ill. ... Redbirds won the only meetings in Anchorage on Feb. 15 and Feb. 17, 2008 ... series started in 2017.
TEAM NOTES: UAA's 192.200 at the 2018 MPSF Championships tied the 22nd-best overall total in program history, while the 48.475 on bars tied for 7th-best on that apparatus ... the Seawolves produced three top-20 beam totals in 2018, with the 48.525 at MPSFs tied for 8th and the 48.425 at Seattle Pacific ranking 12th ... UAA also had three program top-20 efforts on floor, with the 48.850 at Sacramento State ranking 5th and the 48.550s at UC Davis and against Centenary tying for 14th ... the Seawolves' final 190.805 regional qualifying score ranked 69th nationally ... UAA's highest apparatus RQS came on balance beam, finishing 65th with a 48.175.
GYMNAST NOTES: So. Isabelle Fox became the first UAA gymnast to earn Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Freshman of the Year honors in 2018 ... Fox led the Seawolves with eight event victories, marking the most for a UAA freshman since M'rcy Matsunami had 10 in 2013 ... Fox's all-around average of 38.400 tied for 5th and her RQS of 38.540 ranked 6th on UAA's respective program lists, and were 3rd- and 2nd-best for a freshman; on beam, the Texan produced the 7th-best RQS (9.720) and 8th-best average (9.623) in program history at 9.623 ... Fox tied the 4th-best beam score for a Seawolf with her 9.85 at the MPSF Championships, and her 9.875 floor score at the Seawolf Invitational tied for 10th on that list ... junior Mackenzie Miller had UAA's 2nd-best bars average last year at 9.605 – 12th on UAA's single-season list ... in 2018 Miller tied for the 7th-best bars score in program history with her 9.875 against Cortland on Jan. 14, while posting her career-best 38.200 all-around performance at Centenary on Feb. 9 ... Miller produced three event victories last season, including a sweep of bars and the all-around Feb. 9 at Centenary ... with her 3rd-place 9.8 bars routine at the 2018 MPSF Championships, then-freshman Hope Nelson managed to tie M'rcy Matsunami's program-record 9.713 bars average from the 2015 campaign ... Nelson also prodcued top-5 program marks in beam average (4th, 9.666) and uneven bars RQS (5th, 9.735), while her 9.696 beam RQS tied for 11th ... Nelson won both of her specialist events in her collegiate debut against Cortland, and she posted another win on bars at Centenary ... then-freshman Isabella Scalapino and then-junior Kierra Abraham leant consistency to UAA's vault lineup last year, with Scalapino scoring between 9.475 and 9.725 on all eight of her efforts, and Abraham tallying between 9.5 and 9.625 in all nine meets ... the Seawolves get a pair of sophomores back from redshirt campaigns as they welcome Tere Alonso and Louisa Marie Knapp back to the lineup ... Alonso saw action on all four appartus as a freshman in 2016, while Knapp figures to help as one of the team's top bars specialists ... one of several Seawolves to miss time to injuries last year, Jr. Sophia Hyderally is set to return to the form of her freshman season, when she became the first Seawolf to win an MPSF beam title with a school-record 9.925 ... Hyderally scored 9.65 or better on five of six beam routines as a rookie.
