Gymnastics hopes to make its mark in the MAC as it enters conference play.

The Huskies (0-1) will face off against Ball State (2-3) at 7 p.m. Friday at the Convocation Center. It will be the Huskies’ first home meet of the season.

Ball State is coming off a win against Iowa, 189.957-188.875.

The Cardinals’ Erin Patchey has been their best performer recently. Patchey had a 9.75 on the vault and a 9.8 on the floor.

Brooklyn Schumacher and Angela Durkac also put up impressive scores of 9.8 on uneven bars. Outside of the three, the Cardinals have struggled in early going to match last season’s highs.

The Huskies have things looking up despite coming off a loss to Nebraska two weeks ago. Head coach Sam Morreale said the team hit well on three of the four events, with the performance on beam being an outlier. He’s confident beam won’t be a problem against the Cardinals.

“Nothing going into that meet made it seem like beam wasn’t ready,” Morreale said. “So it was just one of those things where it just didn’t go how we wanted it to. Skill-wise and what we’re doing, we’re right on track. We just had a bad outing.”

Senior Natasha Jufko was the team’s lone bright spot on beam at Nebraska with a score of 9.7, which placed her at sixth overall. She thinks NIU will perform better at this meet if the women have the right mindset.

“We’re been doing a lot of numbers in practice, and at this point we just have to trust our skills,” Jufko said. “We’ve done a lot in preseason, so now it’s just carrying that through, staying confident. The skills aren’t the issue as this point; it’s a mind game.”

Jufko believes it will be better for the gymnasts if they don’t look at their opponents’ past scores.

“It’s one of those things where you can’t hold it on a platter, and be like, ‘They got a 190,’” Jufko said. “They could go 194. We don’t really look into what they’re doing each meet and how they’re scoring. We’re just going to try and focus on ourselves. Our goal going into this meet is meet 194 or better.”

The home atmosphere should provide a boost for the Huskies. In the past, gymnastics has been dominant at home.

Sophomore Jaelyn Olsen said the home court advantage combined with the team’s focus will make for a good meet.

“My mentality is to just take one thing at a time, one skill at a time,” Olsen said. “I think everyone is a little more excited because it’s our first meet and we have our fans here. We’re just going into this meet with confidence.”