The women’s gymnastics team will face its steepest competition of the year so far when it travels to Central Michigan on Friday.

The Chippewas (3-2, 0-1 MAC) have not scored lower than a 194.500 all season long.

Senior gymnast Natalie Sutter believes the team is mentally prepared for the meet and that it will provide them an opportunity to test themselves against one of the conference’s best programs.

“We just started talking about it after we closed this last meet because you don’t want to get ahead of yourself,” Sutter said. “It’s a good test to see where we are in the MAC. This is the time where we really need to turn it on and hit all four events and we can definitely do it and give these tough schools a run for their money.”

The Huskies (3-1, 1-1 MAC) are coming off their highest score of the season with a 192.875, but head coach Sam Morreale is looking to continue with the same themes that have gotten the team this far.

“We’re not gonna change,” Morreale said. “We’re going to continue with the same type of goals. It’s hard to change our goals because we haven’t attained them yet. We’re not really going to panic or change anything.”

Morreale also believes the Huskies are just a few key points from being as consistent as Central Michigan. The Huskies have been sitting at 192, but the Chippewas are two points above that ledger.

Sutter believes that despite the team’s lack of a breakout meet, the consistency in the scores so far has shown the ability of this team compared to teams of years past.

“192 isn’t a bad place to be at and we haven’t had near our best meet yet,” Sutter said. “Being able to stay in that 192 isn’t something we’ve been able to do since I’ve been here. When we’ve had a bad meet we’ve always dropped below it. As soon as we hit all four events we’re going to go 194, 195.”

While the Huskies will be on the road against a top conference opponent, Morreale knows his squad has been able to gain confidence over the past few weeks, with closely contested meets and final two rotations playing heavily into those decisions.

“To pull out a meet whether you win by .100 or a point, that’s going to build confidence for us,” Morreale said. “For us, this becomes the meet of our schedule. This is our best chance to see what kind of team we are because we’re going against three of the better competitors on our schedule.”