The Ball State University gymnastics team walked to the uneven bars Sunday afternoon with a confident gait that had been dormant for a majority of the season.
That initial confidence helped the Cardinals earn their first Mid-American Conference win of the season beating Western Michigan University 190.975 to 189.800. Through one event, the Cardinals were ahead of the competition for the first time since their Jan. 9 win against Pennsylvania University.
"It was just so nice to start with a lead," coach Nadalie Walsh said. "We're consistently putting the same girls out there, so it makes me feel like we're making the right decisions."
Ball State's Teresa Phipps won the vault with a score of 9.775 and later placed first in the all-around with a score of 38.675. Brittney Emmons took a close second place in the vault by scoring a 9.750.
Freshman Domenique DeRosa placed first on the uneven bars with a score of 9.775.
Top scores for the Cardinals were rounded off by Brittney Emmons, adding a first place finish on the floor routine with a score of 9.725.
Following a team score of 48.500 on the bars, the Cardinals proceeded to fall five times on the balance beam.
"I feel like they checked themselves," Walsh said. "They landed, and they checked themselves. The beam is not an event where you can take a timeout and ask [the beam] if it's OK."
Walsh said the mistakes on beam have been prevalent through six weeks of competition must be addressed before the team continues the last third of its season.
"We're going to start going to some big schools now," Walsh said. "If we can do some of the big routines that we did on the floor routine [Sunday], they'll be rewarded, even though they weren't [Sunday]."
Phipps said the team's focus toward the beam after its first two events was shaky, at best.
"We really fixed it [balance beam], but I think we just lost focus because everything was going so well for us," Phipps said. "We forgot that we needed to focus and pay attention to those things we fixed."
The Cardinals hold a personal goal of reaching the 195-point plateau in a competition. One of the only ways that will happen is by eliminating point dropping, Walsh says.
"I feel like most of the girls [Sunday] had their falls, and they didn't give anything else away," Walsh said. "It's [falling] is really frustrating, but they're frustrated, too, so I think they need to have the same strategy of working hard."
The Cardinals, 2-6 (1-6 MAC), compete next when they travel Friday to Lexington, Ky., for a 7 p.m. meeting with the Southeastern Conference's University of Kentucky.
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