On Sunday afternoon, women’s gymnastics will compete at the location where the MAC championships will be hosted this season.

The Huskies (4-5, 2-3 MAC) are heading into Kalamazoo, Mich., riding a four-week stretch of scoring in the 194 range. They will look to even both their season and MAC ledger against the Western Michigan Broncos (3-4, 1-2 MAC).

Head coach Sam Morreale has said a lot of factors are going into this meet, including the responsibility of preparing his exhibition performers and keeping his regular starters ready to go and motivated.

This meet serves as the last time the team can use exhibition routines, so he is looking to slot a few extra gymnasts to get a look at how they handle performing outside practice.

“Honestly, we’ll get the two [slots], so the first exhibition slot will be used for someone we feel could slide into the competition slot if something were to happen,” Morreale said. “We haven’t made these decisions yet. They [have] two more days to kind of prove they should get the chance, I guess.”

With the high score streak still carrying the team, the Huskies look to continue on in that fashion, and senior gymnast Marisa Liptak believes it will be an important win for not only the season but on a personal level for the team.

“We’re definitely really confident going into this meet,” Liptak said. “It’s going to be a tough one. This is probably one of the ones where we really need our confidence. They were ranked I think second in the MAC going into this season, so if we beat them going into MAC’s it raises our confidence even more.”

Not only does it raise the team’s confidence going into the championships, an experience on Western Michigan’s equipment looms large for the team.

The opportunity is not a common one, and it is favorable scheduling, so the gymnasts are looking forward to this occasion.

“I think we are so lucky to be able to go there within two weeks of MAC’s,” Liptak said. “Just getting used to their equipment really makes a huge difference because every time we go somewhere, getting used to their equipment is one of the biggest factors of the warmup. It’s the fact that we’re going there and two weeks later we’re back. It’ll be like we just competed there.”

With the ever-present possibility of a 195 score emerging each week, coming .225 short last week reflects both the improvements made and the improvements to be made.

Morreale had set the team goal at 194.500, so gymnastics surpassed of the team mark in that regard.

Liptak believes it’s a bittersweet accomplishment.

“It kind of hurts getting so close and not getting [the 195], but at the same time there was nothing from that meet that we took away that was negative,” Liptak said. “We did everything we could. It sucks that we didn’t get that 195. but I think we had a 195 performance. It stings a little bit…I think we’re going to get it this weekend for sure…We’re right there, no one can stop us.”