Sacramento State’s all-girl cheerleading team finished fourth in the nation at the Universal Cheerleaders Association College Nationals in Orlando, Florida on Jan. 17.

This is the second year Sac State has sent an all-girl team to nationals instead of a coed team, after circumstances led to the switch last year.

The team came to nationals this year with a motivation to win and would stop at nothing, not even competing with Division 1 powerhouse and last year’s champions, Morehead State University.

Fourth place may not seem like much, but to the team it means overcoming obstacles and coming out on top.

During a practice run the day before nationals, one of the 23 girls was injured to the point she couldn’t perform.

“My knee just popped… I was trying to crawl to get back up and let people know I was getting up, but there was no way I was getting up,” Sac State cheerleader Cera Moreno said. “In my mind, I thought ‘just tape me up, I want to get back on the mat, I don’t want to let my team down’ but at the end of it, I wasn’t able to walk.”

An injury at this point in the game would usually mean calling it a day, but they were able to pull together a routine with an alternate girl and still keep the same skills they came with.

Cheerleader Katrina Romo said the team handled the last minute changes positively.

“We could not control what had happened but we had the responsibility to respond as productive as possible,” Romo said. “We were able to keep all the skills in the routine the same and girls stepped up to make that happen.”

Anyone who is close to the team can see they treat each other as family, constantly building each other up on and off the mat. Having an injured teammate was no different.

The team wrote “faith” on their wrists for the next day’s performance to keep the reminder that they could persevere and even dedicated the routine to an injured Moreno.

“They all knew I wanted to be on the mat and they did it for me, which is probably the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me,” Moreno said.

Hornet Sports Marketing Director Adam Primus said people don’t realize how much time and effort the cheerleading team puts into the campus.

“They’re great on campus; I don’t think people know of the number of practices and events and things they do to help school spirit and green army spirit.” Primus said. “They’re so energetic and so spirited and don’t mind assisting in any area.”

Coaches Tony Oka and Kori Thomas and Cheerleading Director Jennifer Souto have worked hard to get the second year all-girl team ready for nationals.

“The coaches are very professional and very skilled and thats the highlight of those teams,” Primas said. “They have some of the coaches that could coach anywhere and they coach here part-time. We don’t give any scholarships and we’re competing against Morehead state, who gives scholarships and [the] number two and [the] number three [teams] who give scholarships; So to see that happen it’s just amazing.”

The coaches are already looking to build up the program further with plans to come back better than ever, Souto said. They want to bring two strong teams to the mat and have the interest forming for tryouts.

While it may feel like next year is a chance to come back even better, for some of the team it was the last time they will ever be on a competition floor.

“It didn’t really hit me until a couple minutes after we performed, that that was the last time I would ever compete,” Summer DeVries said. “Sac State cheer has had an amazing impact on my life and I’m so grateful that I was apart of this team for my very last competition.”

Tryouts for the 2015-2016 year are May 8-9, 2015.