Seemingly picking up right where it left off, the women’s gymnastics team posted its second score in the 194 territory in a loss to Iowa State.

The Huskies (3-3, 1-2 MAC) hit every routine, going 24-24 to post a 194.375, but came up short as the Cyclones (3-5, 0-2 Big 12) posted their season-best, reaching 195.175.

The Huskies made their first trip to a Big 12 school since 2005 when they went to Nebraska. They were unfazed by the crowd and the atmosphere.

“I thought it was awesome,” said sophomore Shelby Davis. “I love arenas like that. It makes you feel like, ‘Yeah, I’m here…I’m gonna put on an awesome routine.’ You want everyone to look at you…it didn’t make us nervous. I feel like it just kind of motivated us: ‘There’s gonna be a lot of people watching so let’s show them what we got.’”

That attitude translated into a hot start from the get-go with the Huskies. They opened on bars and posted a 48.550 on the event; they were led by a 9.800 from junior Megan Melendez and a career-best 9.775 from junior Kim Gotlund.

Rotating to vault, NIU was led by freshman Jaelyn Olsen, who scored the seventh best vault score in NIU history and took the top score of the event with a 9.875. NIU posted a team score of 48.375.

NIU got stronger as the meet wore on, as on floor it posted a 48.675; there, it was led by Gotlund and her season-best 9.775.

Finishing on beam with the highest event score, junior Natasha Jufko returned to high form, leading the team and securing second at the meet with a 9.850.

For all-around scoring, Gotlund posted the high score of the meet with a 38.900 while senior Natalie Sutter added a 38.700.

“The all-arounders [put] together two solid days,” said head coach Sam Morreale. “Kim competing against the Big 12 and winning the all-around in that meet, that’s a big deal, so props to her.”

While the loss still counts, everything else turned out as a victory for the Huskies, as not only did they top their high score, they achieved several of the goals laid out for them by Morreale.

As the season has wore on the team’s progression has become more fluid, and it showed, as Morreale was impressed by performance and attitude.

“Overall I just feel like we had more confidence this weekend,” Morreale said. “Probably built off Central [Michigan], what we did the week before. We looked comfortable, relaxed, but also very into what we were doing. This meet was finally a goal meet. We had our 9.700 averages and we hit our nine sticks; all our start values were there, and the 24-24. We feel really good about the weekend.”