After several falls on beam and vault in early rotations, the Kent State gymnastics team fell to Eastern Michigan 193.900-103.300 on Friday. The Flashes’ performance against the Eagles didn’t sit well with coach Brice Biggin.

“They’re not as relaxed and they’re not quite aggressive as they normally would be,” Biggin said. “We’ve had a fall early in our lineup in a couple of events lately, and the girls after the fall tighten up so they don’t do the mistake either. And that’s not good for being able to compete well.”

Biggin said that the lineup is very important, and that the people who go first need to hit their routines perfectly to set the tone for the rest of the Flashes.

“We’re not as confident as we should be,” Biggin said. “If one person makes a mistake the rest tend to get nervous and they don’t want to make a mistake either because they know that it’ll hurt the team.”

Team captain Dara Williams earned her ninth individual event win of the season by finishing first on the vault with a score of 9.825 and third on bars with a score of 9.825.  In total, she finished in the top-five on vault in every event and in the top-10 in every event on bars.

On vault, sophomore Abby Fletcher placed third with a 9.750 while Toshi Richard finished third on floor with a 9.825.  

Freshman Madison Trott and junior Jade Brown both scored a 9.800 on floor to finish in a tie for fifth place. 

For Biggin, the reason the Flashes’ confidence waned over their last two meets was due to them being tired from the long season. But Biggin isn’t using that as an excuse.

“We are what we are and we know that we can’t change that,” he said. “I trust them and their talent.”

The Flashes will be back in action next Saturday when they travel to DeKalb, Illinois for the MAC Championship that starts at 2 p.m.

 Sara Al Harthi is a sports reporter. Contact her at [email protected].