The women’s gymnastics team hosted the Michigan-Illinois team challenge but fell short against the competition Friday night, coming in last out of four teams.
Illinois-Chicago came in first, Illinois State came in second and Central Michigan came in third.
The three losses move the team’s record to 1-5 after coming up with its first victory the week before. The team was looking to get revenge on a loss to Central Michigan a week before but could not come up with the victory.
“We definitely had them during the first half of the competition, but we made mistakes on the beam and left it open for Central Michigan and the other teams to take the lead,” assistant coach Andrea Siik said. “We got a real young team right now with a lot of freshmen and sophomores who need to learn to close the gap when we are down and upperclassmen who opened the door for the competition to take the lead and let the other teams to take the win.”
Amanda Fuller, a senior on the team, had a career day and achieving career highs for herself also meant the team needed to pick it up during the meet.
“We need to keep our heads up during the meet even when we are down,” Fuller said. “We’ve got to keep our spirits up no matter what and finish strong.”
The team is making improvements from the year before, posting better total team scores. The team, despite coming in fourth, posted a score of 191.75, which was less than two points behind first-place Illinois-Chicago who finished with a 193.2.
“The team is improving a lot from last year score wise,” Siik said. “We just need to make less mistakes, keep our heads in it through and improve on the little things each and every week.”
Fuller said, “I can definitely tell we are a better team from last year. Us older girls on the team know it and can tell, we just need to come together and keep improving every week like we have been.”
The team will have a chance to get its second win as it will be taking on rival Western Michigan at 1 p.m. Saturday at Bowen Field house.
