For the third straight week, women’s gymnastics posted a score above the 194 mark, but fell to No. 21-ranked Kent State.

The Huskies (3-4, 1-3 MAC) started off on a bad note in their first event against the top dog in Kent State (5-2, 3-0 MAC), and ultimately lost 195.800 to 194.350.

The bar squad got a good start with freshman Lauren Africano posting a 9.700, but the team score was brought down to a 47.875 as the Huskies had to count two falls and another routine with a few miscues.

Head coach Sam Morreale was disappointed in the start to the event and the impact that one rotation had on the end result. Morreale knows it’s not a common issue becasuse two of the gymnasts posting low scores were junior Megan Melendez and senior Natalie Sutter.

“It’s almost an aberration when they come in and do that,” Morreale said. “It’s not like I can get mad at them. It’s more trying to talk about what they were feeling, where they more nervous? It’s more attacking it from that side. When they walk back when you watch their face, they’re already beating themselves up.”

After the start on bars, the Huskies rotated to vault where they scored 48.475. They were led by freshman Jaelyn Olsen, who scored a 9.800.

The third rotation saw the event pick up for NIU, as the beam squad posted a 48.800 led by junior Natasha Jufko and her team-high 9.825. The final event of the meet saw this year’s squad get into the history books as they posted the second-highest team floor score with a 49.200 to outscore Kent State, as all but one gymnast posted a 9.800 or higher. The high score of the event was posted by senior Marisa Liptak, who scored a 9.875 on her routine.

“…It felt really great because each meet is leading up to MAC’s [championship], and that’s our main goal,” Liptak said. “It always stinks to lose, but we know what our goal is. Ending with the huge boost of confidence and scoring our second highest in school history is just fantastic and a huge boost to our confidence on floor which I think we needed.”

Despite the high scoring of the last two events, Kent State led the whole meet, starting with its opening event on vault in which they scored a 49.025. The Golden Flashes scored a 48.900 on bars, a 49.100 on beam and a 48.775 on floor. Kent State also produced two individual 9.900 scores, one on beam by junior Marie Case, and one by senior Rachel Guida on bars.

The type of scoring put up by Kent State is commonplace for them, and its head coach Brice Biggin believes that what they’re doing in chasing a regional berth serves not only themselves, but the conference.

“We’re really trying to push to get into the top 18. It’s a tough goal but its one that our team has had since day one,” Biggin said. “It helps the entire conference out. I think the conference is getting better, step by step. I think Sam is doing a great job and he will continue to do a good job but if we can go out there and make some noise on the national scene we understand it’s not just for us, it’s for helping everyone in [the] conference out. That’s gonna be a big plus…I don’t think we get the respect maybe other people think we deserve.”