Feb. 25, 2002

PITTSBURGH-Although no individual or event records were broken as the Pittsburgh gymnastics team has done the previous two weeks, the Panthers posted the 12th best score in team history in a 194.0-193.5 loss at Illinois on Saturday evening.

The meet started with the Fighting Illini on vault and the Panthers on the uneven bars, their weakest event score-wise thus far in 2002. Despite a strong performance from senior Raya Mullin (Runnemede, N.J./Triton), who scored a 9.825, Pittsburgh managed just 47.65 points on the apparatus and fell behind Illinois by 0.775 points. Mullin's score placed her second on the bars and junior Nathalie Sulpher (Ottawa, Canada/Franco-Quest) finished in fourth place with a 9.7 from the judges.

Illinois was led by Michelle Buranich, who tied for third in the event with a score of 9.775. Amanda Kaufman placed fifth on the vault with 9.75 points as the Fighting Illini chalked up 48.425 team points in the first rotation.

The two teams then switched locations and the Panthers managed to get just 0.075 points back to trim the lead to seven-tenths of a point. Pittsburgh was led by sophomores Diandra O'Connor (Owasso, Okla./Owasso) and Alyse Zeffiro (Holbrook, N.Y./Sachem). Both gymnasts tallied 9.8 scores to tie them for second on the Panthers' all-time individual vault list. It was the second time this season Zeffiro has posted a 9.8, but for O'Connor it was a career-high. Marcy Blitz (Lancaster, Pa./Hempfield) also earned a career high on the event with a score of 9.775 points. The Fighting Illini's Ashley Williams earned the top score on bars for the meet with a 9.85 from the judges.

Pittsburgh was able to take a larger chunk out of the Illinois lead in the third rotation with 48.525 points on the floor exercise, while the Illini had 48.2 on the beam. The Panthers were led by junior Heather Launse (Severna Park, Md./Severna Park) with a 9.775 and Zeffiro with a 9.725. Junior Lisa Yarosh (Seymour, Conn./Seymour) topped her old career-high mark by a full tenth of a point in earning a 9.725 from the judges.

Three Illinois gymnasts recorded a 9.8 or above on the beam, led by Kara Kapemekas' 9.825 score. Both Amanda Kaufman and Margaret Dann had scores of 9.8 to finish in a tie for second in the event.

Although the Panthers had a strong beam performance to close the meet, they could not get any closer to Illinois and lost the meet by a half of a point. Launse had her second team-high score with a 9.8 on the beam, which tied her career high set last season at Kentucky on March 9, 2001. O'Connor and Mullin tied for second on the team with identical scores of 9.775 points. Jana Gallagher led Illinois on the floor with a meet-high 9.85 score from the judges.

O'Connor took first place in the all-around with 38.65 points, 0.15 more than Illinois' Gallagher.

Pittsburgh dropped to 6-7 for the season and will travel to New Hampshire for a quad meet on Saturday, March 2, to take on East Atlantic Gymnastics League rivals New Hampshire and West Virginia as well as non-conference opponent Yale.