Feb. 1, 2008

Complete Results

Seattle, Wash. - Although the Huskies notched their highest score of the season tonight, it was not enough to upset the eighth-ranked UCLA Bruins, who picked up their seventh win of the year at Bank of America Arena, 195.975-194.425. Washington junior Ashley Houghting (Welland, Ont.) snagged second place on two events while freshman Kristen Linton (Edmonds, Wash.) tallied the top all-around score for the Huskies.

"UCLA is one of the top teams in the country," said head coach Joanne Bowers after the meet. "To compete on the same floor as them in a respectable manner was great for our young team."

The Huskies started the night on vault, where Houghting picked up a second-place finish with a 9.85. With a strong performance on bars, UCLA took the lead after the first rotation and never relinquished it. Houghting wrapped up the night with a 9.85 on floor, good for her second second-place showing.

Tonight also saw the return of junior Kristen Omori (Kirkland, Wash.), who missed the last meet after an ankle sprain in the season opener at Denver.

"Our goals for this week were to get a couple more people back in the lineup, to improve our routines and to keep getting better overall," added Bowers. "We did that. We got Kristen [Omori] in on two events, and we got Nikki Waiss in on vault and we improved our team score. A couple of mistakes we made were still aggressive mistakes and that will get better as we go on."

The GymDawgs will be on the road next week at the Chicago Style Invitational next Friday at 7 p.m. (Central time). The Huskies will see UCLA for the second week in a row, as well as Stanford and Illinois.