A week after posting its best score of the season against its toughest opponent, women’s gymnastics will try to replicate that performance Friday at Iowa State.

The Huskies (3-2, 1-2 MAC) will travel to square off against the Cyclones (2-5, 0-2 Big 12) for the first time since head coach Sam Morreale has been involved with the team.

Morreale knows carrying over confidence from the last event will be crucial for his team.

“It’s huge on the road,” Morreale said. “It’s great that we were able to get off the negative on bars because that’s where we’ll start off at Iowa State. I feel like we can compete with those guys. It will be in our best interest to have a meet like we had at Central [Michigan].”

Iowa State has gone up against a lot of nationally ranked opponents this year, but its scoring has not been on par with the Huskies’ previous opponent in Central Michigan.

The Cyclones have competed against four ranked opponents this year already, including the No. 1 and 2 teams (at the date of competition) in the nation in Michigan and Oklahoma, respectively.

Freshman Jaelyn Olsen believes refining basics will help continue the Huskies on an upward trend and aid in their pursuit of a regional berth.

“Practice has been going really good,” Olsen said. “We’re just focusing on the details, landings, straight kness, pointed toes. Based on the last score, I think we’re going into this meet with more confidence because we know what we’re capable of and we’re hoping to show that.”

Morreale always has goals in mind for his squad, and with the achievement of every starter accruing a 9.700 average by virtue of having more than a 194 team score, the average has been bumped up to 9.750 individually.

Morreale also knows that while the high score last week was a good sign of improvement and showcases what the team is capable of when putting everything together, the key will come down to that being a typical performance.

“We were actually hoping to be a little higher earlier,” Morreale said. “We kind of skipped some of the 193 stuff by hitting the 194, so now the test is going to be holding that 194 as we go forward. It’s probably going to be a mid-194 to qualify for regionals.”

While Iowa State represents a big program and has squared off against some of the best competition in the nation, Morreale believes the actual feel of the meet won’t be too different from that of DeKalb for his gymnasts. On the other side of the coin, he also embraces the opportunity for his team to see that competition level.

“It’s great; it’s a small community so a lot of my kids have ex-teammates that are on that team now,” Morreale said. “It’s always great to go against an out of conference team that’s a regional qualifier regularly.”