Despite a third-place finish in last weekend's road test against No. 2 Arkansas and No. 3 Florida in Gainesville, Fla., Terrapins gymnastics coach Brett Nelligan said last weekend wasn't all bad.
Stephanie Giameo scored a career-high 9.850 on the balance beam and Katie Dodds finished sixth on vault, a pair of positives that offer hope of better performances in the future.
"I think we had some really bright spots," Nelligan said. "Even though we made some mistakes, I feel that we showed that there are great things ahead of us this season."
Facing two top-10 opponents in the Gators, who were ranked No. 8 heading into the event, and the Razorbacks, the Terps encountered a great deal of publicity performing in front of a large crowd and an ESPNU broadcast Friday night.
"There is no experience like being on a national stage in front of big crowds," Nelligan said. "It's something that, as hard as we try, we can't replicate in the gym."
Nelligan also saw positives in his team's toughness and courage in last week's meet.
"The most important thing was that even though we made mistakes, no one backed down and no one was intimidated," he said.
On Sunday, the Terps (4-4, 1-1 EAGL) return home to the Comcast Pavilion for a tri-meet against Bowling Green State (1-5, 0-2 MAC) and conference rival North Carolina (6-0, 1-0).
Nelligan remains excited for the weekend's meet and views last week's performance as a building block for Sunday.
"The girls came in really focused in practice this week," he said. "To be successful we have to take the lessons we learned from last week and apply them."
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