LIVE SCORING

DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women’s gymnastics team opens the 2015 season when it travels to Chicago to face UIC at the UIC Pavilion. Competition begins at 7 p.m.

There will be live scoring available and fans can get live updates on Twitter via @NIUScores. This is the first of two meetings between NIU and the Flames. In addition to Friday’s dual meet, the teams will compete against each other at the State of Illinois Classic March 7 in DeKalb.

The Huskies enter the 2015 season with some pretty high expectations for themselves and they are more than capable of reaching those goals.

“One of the main goals is to qualify to regionals as a team, which is something we haven’t done here in a while,” said fourth year NIU head coach Sam Morreale. “Also, these kids also want to be MAC champs. Those are both attainable goals if we produce how we’ve practiced.

“The beauty of this first competition is we’ll get to see where we’re at. We are by no means full strength, but it will never be an excuse for us. It’s like every other sport here at NIU, next kid up mentality.”

While this is the first meet of the season for the Huskies, Morreale knows the team’s performance Friday night will not be an indicator of how it will preform the rest of the season.

“Our goal is to go into UIC and score a 194,” he said. “But it doesn’t dictate our season if that doesn’t happen. It’s about keeping it in perspective. The main thing I am looking for in this meet is how does the team handle themselves? How do they handle adversity? How do they handle success?”

This weekend’s meet begins a stretch of four of the next six meets on the road and a schedule that is designed to challenge the Huskies and help the team qualify for the NCAAs.

“We don’t have any easy meets this year,” he said. “Our goal is to go into every meet and win, but I want to challenge these kids. I don’t want to win to just win. I want to win because we’re scoring a certain score.”

Following the dual with the Flames, NIU welcomes Kent State to the Convocation Center Jan. 16 to open conference play and Lindenwood Jan. 23 to the Convo for the FLIP-PIN event in conjunction with the NIU wrestling team. The Huskies return to the road when NIU travels to Western Michigan and Central Michigan Feb. 1 and Feb. 6 respectively before returning to Chicago Feb. 13 to compete in the IGI Chicago Style Meet.

A tri-meet with MAC foe Bowling Green and Alaska at home Feb. 15, followed by trips to Southeast Missouri State and Ball State close out the month of February for NIU. The Huskies close out the regular season by hosting the aforementioned State of Illinois Classic and Eastern Michigan Mar. 15 in their final tune up before the MAC Championships.

“Every meet for us counts,” Morreale said. “While this meet with UIC doesn’t mean everything, at the end of the year, our regional average, which is the top five scores at the end of the year, dictates it.”

The Huskies, who finished fourth at last year’s MAC Championships, were picked to finish fourth in the league this year. That prediction doesn’t add any extra motivation heading into this season. NIU is motivated by its performances the past few years.

“Central Michigan is the team to beat,” he said. “They’ve been the team to beat for years. That’s taking anything away from the other schools in the MAC, but they’ve been the best. It’s no more motivation for us because we’ve finished fourth the last three years, so there’s already motivation to change that number for the better.”

-NIU-