Last weekend, NIU’s gymnastics team recorded its best score this season, 191.150.

The Huskies (1-5, 1-3) are looking to build on that and take the next step this weekend against Kent State (7-2-1 overall, 1-1 MAC) at home at 2 p.m. Sunday.

The Huskies are going into this meet with a lot of confidence, gained from their last meet and their week of practice.

Head coach Mark Sontag would have liked to get the win last week, but he was very pleased with his team’s effort and performance and is looking forward to seeing them in action.

“We are coming off our best performance of the year,” Sontag said. “It’s good to see results like that after working so hard. The girls really gained a lot of confidence from it. I’m looking forward to seeing them build on that come Sunday.”

Senior Holly Reichard is coming off of her top performance of the season, scoring 38.600 in all-around competition, and she wants to see the team build off of last week.

“We know we have the skills and the talent, and our score last week showed us that,” Reichard said. “And we know that we are capable of doing better again. We just have to focus on the little things and hit our routines.”

The Huskies also continue to get healthier and stronger each week. Senior Tanya Rachan will be back, after being limited for much of the season. Sontag said Rachan will contend in the floor event, and she may be able to do vault as well.

“We have had a lot of unfortunate injuries this year,” Sontag said. “But we have overcome them, and we are getting healthy at the right time of the year.”

As difficult as it was to overcome all of the injuries, Reichard also said she thinks that they were helpful.

“Overcoming the injuries has been a challenge for us,” Reichard said. “But we have also benefited from them. A lot of girls stepped up and gained a lot of experience and that made our team deeper.”

Sontag said he believes that in order for the girls to be successful they have to be consistent and focus on the little things.

“We want to have the lowest possible point deductions,” Sontag said. “In order to do that, we have to pay attention to detail and not make little mistakes. We just need to focus on ourselves, and if we do that, we will be successful.”