DeKALB – From the first step in her sprint, junior Isabella Sissi had no doubt about the outcome of her pending vault routine.

“I just knew right when I was running that I was going to stick it,” Sissi said.

A pop off the table, a stick and a salute later, the judges returned a score Sissi had never before seen on that event: 9.850, a new personal best for the Blaine, Minnesota native.

“It was a surreal moment, honestly,” Sissi said. “It was probably one of the most amazing moments in my collegiate career.”

Sissi’s highlight routine helped propel the Huskies to an early advantage at Sunday’s tri-meet at the Convocation Center.

Unfortunately for the Huskies, that advantage didn’t last.

BESTED AT HOME

By meet’s end, NIU’s once-stellar start had turned into a bitter finish. The Huskies (2-5-1, 1-1 MAC) scored 193.425 overall points to take last at their first home meet of 2024, playing third fiddle to a pair of MAC rivals.

Eastern Michigan University took home the meet crown after winning the bars and beam and compiling a meet-best score of 195.700. Defending MAC champion Central Michigan University finished second with a 195.325.

Neither shaken nor stirred by her team’s subpar performance, Sissi sees room for improvement with seven meets left in the regular season.

“Obviously not the meet that we necessarily wanted as our home opener, but I’m not going to let that discourage me or the rest of the team,” the all-arounder said. “I still think we have a lot of potential to tap into.”

BAD DAY ON BEAM

The balance beam proved to be NIU’s Achilles heel as its worst-scoring event of the day. The Huskies turned in a 46.975 on beam in the third rotation, their worst total on any event since March 1, 2019. 

Senior Kendall George posted a meager 9.075 in the leadoff spot. Junior Ellery Werner’s routine in the fourth spot ended in a fall off the beam and a meet-worst 8.900. Senior Alyssa Al-Ashari made rare miscues in her anchoring routine.

In all, four Huskies in the beam lineup scored 9.325 or lower on their routines.

“We definitely struggled on beam today, and that’s a little frustrating as a coach because training-wise, we’re just in a much better place,” NIU gymnastics head coach Sam Morreale said. “I don’t know if it was the energy, the excitement and everything, but it definitely affected us, and not in a good way.”

ADDING SWEET TO SOUR

Despite a slew of errors in the middle two rotations, NIU strung together enough positives to give a bitter-tasting defeat a sweeter flavor. 

Sissi’s aforementioned career-best vault routine tied for fourth at the meet. She was also the meet’s runner-up in the all-around with a 39.050, second only to Eastern Michigan senior Raisa Boris, who also championed the bars, beam and floor.

Al-Ashari posted a 9.800 on bars in her first routine of the day, earning her fourth place honors. Sophomore Jocelyn Harbeck recorded her first counting score as a college gymnast on vault (9.750).

NIU’s floor squad was instrumental in ending the meet on a high note, producing a total of 49.175 and five counting scores of 9.800 or higher. Juniors Alana Anderson, Emmalise Nock and freshman Isabella Ross each scored 9.850 – a new personal best for Ross – to grant the Huskies their best event score of the night on the heels of their worst.

“Yeah, we had a rough event,” Morreale said. “But let it go; move to the next thing, because we’re a good floor team. And that’s an event we can score on, so I feel like we had a really good showing there.”

TIME FOR REDEMPTION

The Huskies will have nearly two weeks to simmer in their defeat before returning to action Feb. 9 for the annual Beauty and the Beast meet alongside NIU wrestling.

Nock – one of NIU’s four team captains – has faith that intrasquad competition will be the driving force in a successful rebound for the team its next time out.

“A lot of us know what we did wrong, and we’re definitely going to use that to push us,” Nock said. “Losing today was kind of hard for some of us, but we’re definitely going to show out at the next Beauty and the Beast meet.”

NIU will host Western Michigan University, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater at 7 p.m. Feb. 9 in the Convocation Center.