One week after posting the fourth best team score in school history against Boise State University, the Sacramento State gymnastics team suffered a tough loss to the Falcons of Seattle Pacific University Friday at Hornet Gym.

Seattle Pacific won the meet 191.400-190.600, thanks to a strong team performance in the floor exercise and a nightmarish performance on the balance beam for Sac State. The Hornets suffered through nine falls during the beam rotation, giving them a team score of 44.900 on the apparatus. Seattle Pacific scored a 47.750.

Prior to the meet, Hornet coach Kim Hughes admitted that the beam has been a problem for his athletes.

“The beam is definitely our weakest event,” Hughes said. “We know this is not going to be a cake walk. We?re going to have to hit our routines.”

The Hornets won all of the other events and would have won on the beam had the 9.0 score posted by senior Melissa Prescott counted toward the team score.

“Melissa?s score would have put us over the top, but it was an exhibition, so we couldn?t count it,” Hughes said.

Instead, they were forced to count an 8.250 score turned in by junior Jenny Diamond.

The Hornets led after the first two rotations and thanks to personal bests by senior Lori Gillette, sophomore Binta Coleman, and freshman Meloney Greer, their 49.050 score on the uneven bars was the highest of the season.

“We performed three out of the four events extremely well,” Hughes said. “The judges seemed to be willing to give out [high] scores just for hitting routines. That?s what makes it especially frustrating.”

Senior Wendy Baisdon?s 9.325 score on the beam was the highest for the Hornets and was good enough for fifth place overall in the event.

“We did well in all the other events. We just have to get back in the gym and get better on the beam,” said junior Toni Petersen, who placed second with a 9.800 on the floor exercise behind Diamond?s personal best 9.850.

Petersen also placed second in the all-around competition.Sac State?s balance beam woes may be more mental than they are physical.

“It?s the only event where if you stumble a little, you?re totally off,” Hughes said. “And, if people start to fall, it sets up a mindset with the rest of the team that?s hard to overcome.”

Petersen echoed her coach?s sentiments.

“It?s nerve-racking,” said Petersen.

Both Hughes and Petersen expressed a desire to reinstitute a training tool called a pressure set, where the athletes perform their beam routine while their teammates closely observe as a group. It is designed to simulate the pressure that might be felt during an actual meet.

“We did the pressure sets in training before the Boise State meet and performed much better. We didn?t do them this week, so maybe it?s time to go back to them,” Hughes said.

Next week, Sac State travels up to Seattle to take on the Falcons in a rematch. Hughes is sure that his team will perform well.

“I?m confident that we?re going to beat them in the other three events. We?ll see what happens with the rest of it,” Hughes said.

Fortunately, there is plenty of time for the Hornets to improve.

There are seven meets left, in which Hughes believes they need an average score of around 193 in order to make it to the West Regionals.

“We?re not going to make it to Regionals if we continue to fall of the beam,” Petersen said.