DAVIS, Calif. -- What they hoped for was another step forward, what they got was a giant leap: UC Davis women's gymnastics jumped to a season-high 194.925 in last weekend's road dual meet at San Jose State, and now look to continue that progress against the same Spartans in a home dual on Friday. March-in is 7 p.m.

UP NEXT
Who: San Jose State
When: Friday, February 7 • 7 p.m. 
Where: The Pavilion (Davis, Calif.) 
Live Results: StatBroadcast (http://statb.us/b/284065)
Live Video: Facebook Live (https://www.facebook.com/ucdavisgymnastics/)

"I would have to say that this team has really done an amazing job in the past two weeks to get back on track," said head coach John Lavallee. "To come into the gym every day, put in the effort and most importantly, make the changes. Those changes surely showed in our level of performance. We hit 23 out of 24 routines. That's what we need. That's all them. 

"I can tell them to keep their legs straight and what shape they want to be in, but the bottom line is that athletics begins and ends with the athletes. It's up to them to raise their hands to judges and decide what kind of performance they want to have for themselves. It really shows the level of effort and determination they have."

The Aggies enjoyed event wins from Gabby Landess (all-around, uneven bars), Logan Clagg (vault), Cortney Cunningham (bars) and Cammi Johnson (balance beam), with only a 9.900 from SJSU veteran Taylor Chan preventing a UC Davis sweep. Cunningham popped a 9.875, then Landess matched it immediately after, leading UC Davis to a 48.950 team total – tied for 10th in school event for bars.

Landess added a 9.700 on vault, a second-place 9.800 on floor and a 9.825 on beam en route to a career-high 39.200 in the all-around. She became the 10th gymnast in program history to achieve such a score, and just the fourth to crack the 39.2 mark in a January meet. Landess also owns the highest all-around score by any MPSF gymnast so far in 2020, eclipsing the 39.100 Chan notched five days earlier.

Overall, the Aggies posted seven scores of 9.8 or better during Friday's meet. Landess' three gives her five for the season, while Cunningham's career best brings her 2020 total to four. Clagg, Johnson, Kelley Hebert and Alyssa Ito each have two so far.

San Jose State and UC Davis enter Friday's meet ranked 44th (193.869) and 53rd (192.100), respectively, in Monday's updated standings at RoadToNationals.com. Of course, the current listings are based on overall average, which means the Aggies are still pulled down by their sub-188 score at Arizona State. Removing that meet would put UC Davis at 193.319 – just behind Towson for 48th. In short, Friday's meet should prove to be a competitive affair between the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation's top two teams.

"You get a couple of good meets under you and then you decide it's time to shine," said Lavallee. "It's time to do all of the extra things that don't just get you through but make it a big performance."

As usual, live results for Friday's meet are available on StatBroadcast, while video will stream via Facebook Live. Links are available above.

2020 SEASON NOTES

HOW YOU START, REDUX: Freshman Logan Clagg went 38.825 for her first collegiate all-around score in Friday's dual at San Jose State... This represents the No. 3 all-around debut in program history, behind Gabby Landess (39.050 on Jan. 18, 2019) and Dani Judal (38.925 on Jan. 4, 2015)... Fourth and fifth on the list of AA debuts belong to Alexis Brown (38.700 on Feb. 20, 2015) and Katie Yamamura (38.575 on Jan. 10, 2010).

FAMILIAR FOES: The 2020 schedule has numerous occurrences of what is otherwise a relative rarity: the same opponent in back-to-back meets... UC Davis met with Sacramento State on January 5 and 12 (the first of six overall meetings this year), San Jose State has consecutive duals with the Aggies on January 31 and this Friday, while Utah State shows up in meets on February 21 and 28.

ELITE COMPANY: Kelley Hebert hit a 9.900 on beam for the third time in her career on January 5, then followed with her ninth career 9.9-plus floor score two weeks later at ASU... She shares the school record on each of those two events: 9.925 on beam twice, 9.950 on floor twice... Her 9.900 on beam at Sac State made her just the second Aggie to break a 9.900 in any event of a season opener: Ericka Ruelas first set the school bars record of 9.925 in the Jan. 16, 2000 home dual against San Jose State.

HOMECOMING: The March 21 MPSF championship will also serve as a homecoming for several of the league's coaches... Four of the six members have former UC Davis gymnasts on their respective staffs: Carolyn Kampf and Aya Suzuki at UC Davis, Tanya Ho at UAA, Solorio at Sac State, and Andi Dolinsky-Webb at Air Force.

RIDE, CAPTAIN, RIDE: Senior Sarah Liddle and junior Kelley Hebert were selected as team captains for the 2020 season, replacing Roxanna Agah and Yasmine Yektaparast... Yektaparast was the first Aggie to repeat in that role during the John Lavallee era (2007-present), although Hebert will now have an opportunity to do the same in 2021.

DECORATED: A total of nine UC Davis gymnasts earned 16 All-MPSF awards, with seven and 13 returning in 2020... Junior Kelley Hebert won four such awards last year, plus her second MPSF Gymnast of the Year nod... Junior Gabby Landess won three, joining Hebert on the all-around first team while adding second-team All-MPSF on both bars and floor... Senior Sarah Liddle and junior Alyssa Ito each claimed honors on both bars and beam in 2019... Cammi Johnson and Cortney Cunningham were All-MPSF winners on vault, with the latter claiming the league's Newcomer of the Year award.

NQS 101: The national-qualifying score, or NQS for short, is calculated by taking the team's (or individual's) top six scores, of which a minimum of three coming from road meets... The highest score of that six is dropped and the remaining five are averaged... The website RoadToNationals.com began calculating this number after Week 6... The top 36 teams in the nation earn NCAA Regional berths while the top MPSF team earns Olympic order (V-UB-BB-FX) at the conference championship meet... In 2019, UC Davis ranked 39th nationally and topped in the MPSF with a 195.215 NQS entering the conference meet, the latter of which granted the Aggies the regular-season championship.

JUST THE SFACTD: Although not limited to faculty members, the Special Faculty Assistant Coach of the Day program invites a key dignitary to serve as an honorary assistant coach for a home meet... The first SFACTD of 2020 was LeShelle May, an award-winning computer engineer and innovator, and the wife of Chancellor Gary May... UC Davis provost and professor Ralph Hexter filled the role for the January 24 home quad meet.