(Photo via Marina Williams/WCSN)
The Arizona State Gym Devils return to Desert Financial Arena battle-hardened, having entered the lair of their rival Wildcats and exiting the other side victorious last week against Arizona. ASU now comes home to a conference opponent in the form of the University of Washington Huskies.
The Huskies ironically play the role of a common type of canine in sports, the underdog. Washington is coming off a meet much like the Gym Devils’ previous home affair. Washington had a night that included losses to both the Oklahoma Sooners and the California Golden Bears but still stayed as the No. 28 ranked team in the country. But the Huskies are still the underdogs due to Arizona State’s recent performances being able to help it lock up and keep the No. 20 ranked position for three weeks straight.
Washington has had a bit of a rough season record-wise, going just 1-10 against teams they’ve competed against. They have one glaring event that sticks out, causing them to score lower than head coach Jen Llewellyn would like, and that’s vault.
The GymDawgs have yet to score a 9.9 or higher in any of their vault rotations, resulting in the vault being the lowest-scoring event for the team in three of the seven opportunities. The Sun Devils, however, have been performing well on vault scoring their second-highest of the season in their meet last week against Arizona.
Arizona State scored five scores above Arizona last week with junior Alex Theodorou winning her first event title of her career and senior Anaya Smith scoring her fourth 9.9 in a row.
Washington looks for senior Skylar Killough-Wilhelm to continue her high scoring that has been apparent throughout the month of February as Washington’s only all-around participant.
Arizona State is 5-4 on the year, entering this week with a two-meet winning streak thanks to back-to-back road victories against Stanford and Arizona. The Sun Devils aim to even up their 1-2 home record while Washington looks to win its first conference meet this season.
With just a month left before conference championships, both of these teams are hoping to get a win and pick up some momentum that will carry them through the rest of the season.
