DeKALB | In any sport, athletes must be ready to be called upon when last-minute injuries occur.

Raw, untested talent doesn’t always step up to the plate swinging, though.

Such was the case when the NIU gymnastics team faced off against MAC foe Eastern Michigan on Sunday afternoon, opening their home schedule at the Convocation Center.

The Huskies were challenged as they couldn’t overcome an injury-filled roster, losing to EMU (1-0 overall, 1-0 MAC) 187.800-186.825.

“We warmed up one team today and competed another,” said head coach Mark Sontag of NIU’s performance. “We were coming off a great meet down in Kentucky last week which was intended to set up a good performance this week and it didn’t happen. It was very atypical of us. From the first routine, I was scratching my head.”

NIU (0-3, 0-1) started the meet without standout junior all-arounder Tanya Rachan, who was injured in practice during the week. The Huskies also watched two of their gymnasts, Kim Gotlund and Jessica Watanabe, suffer injuries during their vault routines Sunday afternoon.

“Some of our young people learned today that you always have to be ready,” Sontag said. “In many ways we have a young team and they are learning how to compete. The whole key is to take what we see in practice and perform like that in the meets. You have to throw your practice routines in meets.”

Sontag also said that his young gymnasts stepped in and performed admirably, filling the void as they also added some meet experience.

“Ashley Guerra is really at the top of her game, she lit it up today,” Sontag added. “She has a new confidence that comes from going to [NCAA Regionals] last year and competing at the highest level. Holly [Reichard] stepped up late today, she’s doing a great job with a completely new floor routine. With Marisa [Liptak] and Natalie Sutter, as sophomores you just see that there is no substitute for competitive experience.”

Guerra went on and posted a score of 9.675 on her floor routine, while Liptak scored 9.700 and 9.600 during her uneven bars and balance beam routine respectively. The scores were good enough for Liptak to grab two individual victories.

Sontag added that although the team is young “they need to be ready to compete and that’s exactly what they did [Sunday].”