The Cardinals are rested and ready to get the 2011 season started.
The gymnastics team will open its schedule Friday with a 7 p.m. meet against Pittsburgh. Ball State has been able to use the time off between semesters to prepare for what it hopes will be a successful season.
Coach Nadalie Walsh said the team has taken advantage of the Winter Break to focus fully on gymnastics in the lead-up to the season opener.
"We're able to take our time with things and being able to work on some of the more mental aspects of gymnastics," Walsh said. "It's just things that we don't normally have time to when we're in the school session. It's been really great. We're made a lot of progress in the past few days."
The Cardinals will be led by regional qualifiers Brittney Emmons and Tiffany Brodbeck.
"I really want to just use what I did last year to help motivate the girls this year, to show them that if I can do it, then we can all do it together," Emmons said.
While the team will miss 2010 regional qualifier Bibiana Rodriguez, especially on the uneven bars, Ball State has added nine gymnasts to its roster for this season.
Walsh said the development of these new Cardinals will be important to Ball State's success this season and that the returning gymnasts have been a tremendous influence in assisting with that growth.
"I think my upperclassmen have really demonstrated what's acceptable and what's not in terms of routines and form and stuff like that," Walsh said.
Pittsburgh enters 2011 having received votes in the preseason coaches' poll. The Panthers return three regional qualifiers: sophomore Meaghan Biros, junior Alicia Talucci and senior Jen Liberato.
Ball State's goal for this meet and throughout the year is to be able to hit five routines in each event and not be forced to count a fall toward its score.
"That's a tough goal for us, but it's also an easy goal for us," Emmons said.
Walsh said precision is necessary to avoid mistakes during a meet.
"In order to avoid falling, we have to be high quality all the time," Walsh said. "When they are off, there room for error is smaller and they can save it. When they're sloppy or their head isn't completely focused on what they're doing, that's when those falls can happen."
It is the first meet of the season, so Walsh said the team might not use every skill it has if it's not ready yet.
"If I'm not sure about it, we're not going to do it," she said. "We're going to do what we absolutely can do, and if that means we do a slightly easier routine to have a routine that we absolutely will make, that's what I want to do."
Walsh said this is a winnable meet for the Cardinals, but she is more concerned with meeting goals than the final score.
"If we accomplish our goal of not having to count falls on events, then we've won either way," Walsh said.
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