The No. 5 Stanford women’s gymnastics team silenced the Wildcats’ roar Sunday afternoon in a close victory over No. 12 Arizona, 194.600-194.125.

Sometimes teams win by performing flawlessly, but a team really shows its muster when it can prevail on a less than stellar day. The Cardinal did the latter on Sunday.

Stanford faced some tough challenges in the meet, but fed off the momentum from its impressive season opener against top-ranked Georgia last week to pull out the victory over Arizona.

“The meet against Georgia gave us a lot of confidence in our first line-ups and allowed us the opportunity to introduce new people to each event this week,” said junior Kelly Fee.

The match marked the Cardinal’s first in Pac-10 play; last year Stanford went undefeated in the conference season.

“Last year we were undefeated in the Pac-10 for the first [time] in Stanford’s history,” Fee said. “We’d like to make it a tradition. This was the first step toward achieving that goal.”

The Cardinal started out well, displaying the team’s strength early in the meet with its strongest events — vault and bar.

The vault was Stanford’s best event of the meet, with all competitors scoring a 9.700 or higher. Senior Stephanie Gentry tied for the team’s highest score, 9.825, with a Yurchenko Full vault.

Freshman Danielle Ikoma made her collegiate vault debut, also earning a 9.825. Freshman Shelley Alexander received the team’s next highest score with a 9.800.

Although the Cardinal performed well on the vault, there were some early problems. There was a 20 minute pause in the middle of the Wildcats’ bar routine, which could have disrupted Stanford’s concentration.

Instead, the team channeled its energy into an impromptu dance session on the floor, spelling out C-A-R-D like the Village People.

For senior Lauren Elmore it was one of the highlights of the meet.

“College gymnastics is great because it is all about doing it as a team,” she said. “The best part about a meet is having fun with your teammates. The fun of being together and just enjoying the moment is what makes it great.”

When the meet started up again, Stanford’s second rotation saw freshman Allyse Ishino continue her solid streak with a 9.825 on the bars. Junior Kelly Fee tied with Ishino for the team’s highest score.

The Cardinal, however, lost momentum as the meet wore on. Even so, the women displayed their depth and mental strength as they pulled out routines despite faltering at times.

On the beam, Stanford pulled through to stay ahead of the Wildcats, but their routines were a bit wobbly. Fee led the way with a score of 9.875. Elmore displayed her trademark consistency with a solid 9.75.

“A team really wins based on their beam routines,” Elmore said. “We’ve had a lot of success on beam in the past, and if we can do that again this year we will be a very dangerous team.”

Fee went on to lead the Card on floor with a 9.875 in the last rotation — hers was the meet’s best score on the floor. Although senior Alex Pintchouk struggled on beam, she redeemed herself with the Card’s second-highest score on floor, 9.775, with an energetic crowd-pleasing routine.

Despite the win, the Cardinal was not satisfied with its performance. The team knows there is still work to be done before this weekend’s meet against No. 10 UCLA.

“This victory was bittersweet,” Elmore said. “We won, however, our performance left much to be desired.

“This week, as we prepare for UCLA, we are going to focus on being more consistent and mentally tough in pressure situations.”

The Cardinal was lucky this week to be able to test its depth. Coach Kristen Smyth took advantage of the opportunity to dig deeper into the lineup, as 15 different athletes competed.

“In some areas, the composure was just not there,” Smyth said. “With some of the mainstays out of our lineup, there wasn’t that sense of calm.

“Our goal this week is to return to a team of 24 [hitting 24 routines] because consistency is a very dangerous weapon.”

Stanford will face UCLA on Sunday in Los Angeles.