In 2012, the University of Nebraska women’s gymnastics team came into the Big Ten conference and won the Big Ten title. For the first home meet of the 2013 season, University of Michigan faced Nebraska with one goal in mind:

Redemption.

On Jan. 12, the Wolverines scored a huge 196.900 to Nebraska’s 196.300. “Our kids don’t like it when they get beat in the Big Ten conference. It’s become kind of a tradition for us, and we don’t like to break that,” said head coach Bev Plocki. “It tells me a lot about this team; they get fired up to go against other really good teams, instead of breaking down to the pressure.”

Joanna Sampson won the all-around with scores of 9.800, 9.825, 9.850, and 9.925 on vault, bars, beam, and floor respectively. Natalie Beilstein placed third on floor with a 9.900. It’s impossible to tell that Belistein was out for most of last season, with the exception of the change in her first tumbling pass. Coming back from a devastating injury to her achilles tendon, Beilstein is happy to be back in the floor lineup. “I wanted to go out there and show the crowd a good show and really start our floor lineup off right. It felt really good and I’m really proud of myself,” Belistein said.

Although this was the first home competition of the season, the Wolverines competed the previous weekend at the Cancun Classic, where they won with a 196.575. “We started off last weekend with a really high note, and we wanted to come back to our home crowd and be able to repeat that performance, and we were able to even improve on it,” said Plocki.

Shelby Gies scored a 9.825 on beam, and was third place on bars with a 9.875. Co-captain and senior Katie Zurales, who won beam with a 9.900, was expected to compete floor, but sat out due to an unusual sensation in her shoulder. Gies was able to step up and compete floor instead of Zurales. “You have to practice as if you’re in lineup every week, and that’s just what I’ve been doing in the gym, so I think that just paid off here,” Gies said.

This meet was crucial for the Wolverines, as they look forward to the rest of the season. “We have a saying in the gym: you do something once, it’s luck; you do something twice, it’s coincidence; and you do something three times, then we’re getting somewhere,” Plocki said. “It’s a great sign for us going forward; we were able to even improve, knowing that we were up against a very good team.”