Four early falls were too much to overcome as the Sacramento State women’s gymnastics team fell 193.975-191.675 to No. 12 University of Denver at the Hornets nest Friday night.

The loss snaps the Hornets’ three-meet winning streak and moves their record to 5-5 in the Western Athletic Conference.

For the Pioneers, the win improves their record to 8-5 overall in the Sun Belt Conference.

After the first rotation, Sac State fell behind by just 0.175 point. The next two rotations increased the gap to just over three points as the Hornets had four falls from the uneven bars and vault.

Despite the early mistakes, Sac State put the rest of its energy into the floor routine as three Hornets had career highs in the event. Sac State finished the floor routine with a season-best overall team score of 49.050.

Freshman standout Kailey Hansen led the way with a score of 9.800 and three other Hornets scored a 9.80 or better to win the event.

Hansen has been a major contributor in several early meets for Sac State this season and said she’s still looking for ways to improve.

“I feel like as a freshman I am doing pretty well, though I still have some little imperfections and consistency issues,” Hansen said. “These will work themselves out as I compete more in collegiate gymnastics,” Hansen said. “In practice I will need to continue to work on consistency for meets. I feel this will all come in time.”

Team captain Amanda Blauvelt was the only Hornet to score in all four events with a 38.550, earning her second place in the all-around competition.

The senior earned her second consecutive career-high in the all-around despite injuring a toe Thursday at practice.

“We have most everyone in the training room before and after practice. Our spirit as a group will always be high,” Blauvelt said. “No matter what, we expect there to be injuries like last year and as long as each person is doing the best they can with what they have available, then that is all we can ask for.”

Coach Kim Hughes said the team has been reliable on floor, but the mistakes in other events need to addressed before its next meet at home versus San Jose State.

“The uneven bars and beam are the two events that we have been consistently missing in. So this next week at practice we need to put in better quality turns during practice as we key in on all the little errors,” Hughes said. “We just need to show more consistency overall and that is what we will work on.”

Sac State returns to the Hornet’s nest on March 6 against the Spartans at 2 p.m.

You can reach Matt Harrington at [email protected]