The MSU gymnastics team is riding high going into its senior night faceoff with Illinois-Chicago, having won the last two meets and the last four at home. MSU will look to carry that momentum into Friday night’s meet at Jenison Field House as the team’s four seniors depart.
Senior Jackie Berg called senior night “bittersweet” and expressed a level of surprise that the season had progressed that far.
“It’s weird to think that this is my last meet at home,” she said. “It came really fast.”
Fellow senior Daneen Haba seconded Berg’s sentiment.
“It’s going to be very sentimental for all the seniors,” Haba said. “But we all just want to have a good meet.”
Haba said the key will be to keep up the level of play the team has shown recently.
“We’ve been on an uphill climb,” she said. “We’ve only been getting better.”
With just three more meets between senior night and the Big Ten Tournament, the Spartans can’t afford to get caught up in the emotion of senior night. They’re currently on the outside looking in at a berth in NCAA Regionals, as determined by their regional qualifying score, or RQS. As of Feb. 27, MSU was about a quarter of a point out of the final slot.
However, because of the way RQS is calculated, MSU is at a disadvantage due to their relative lack of road meets, which greatly contribute to the average calculated for the RQS. That being said, MSU will have three more road meets plus the Big Ten Tournament to improve that aspect of their score.
“My belief is that we’re counting one of the lowest scores in the country right now,” head coach Kathie Klages said, explaining the team’s low RQS. “But I also believe this team will be at NCAA Regionals.”
All the Spartans need to do over their next four road meets is exceed a score of 190 and their RQS will increase dramatically, Berg said.
With the addition of Nebraska to the Big Ten this year, RQS will also come into play in the Big Ten Tournament. The lowest scores will compete in the morning while the highest will compete that night. That makes the next few meets even more important, Berg said.
She added that a morning score would be less likely to hold up than a night one, both because judges tend to be tighter in the morning and because there will simply be more chances for someone to pass the leader.
Nevertheless, Klages isn’t too worried.
“The team has an abundance of confidence right now,” she said.
Berg seconded that assessment.
“We’re confident both in each other and in ourselves,” Berg said. “We’re a little nervous, but we’re ready.”
Klages admitted she’s looking forward to senior night more than the rest of the season.
“I’m excited,” she said. “It’s always fun to honor the seniors.”
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