CEDAR CITY -- The BYU gymnastics team posted another solid score but still found itself on the short end of a 194.875-192.100 meet at Southern Utah on Friday. The Cougars topped the 192 mark for the second-straight week as each competition brings more experience to a young squad.

Junior team co-captain Megan Donehue once again had the high score of the night with a 9.850 on the balance beam, setting a new season and career high. Junior beam specialist Kaylee Gallup also had a solid outing on the event as she tallied a 9.800 for the second-straight outing, tying her season high. Freshman Jennifer Lezeu (9.750) and sophomore Jessica Villegas (9.650) each recorded career highs on the balance beam.

The floor exercise proved to be the highlight of the night for the Cougars as they put up a season-high score of 48.575. Sophomore Whitney Olsen led the way with a career-high 9.775 while Madeleine Johnson and Lezeu also came up big with personal-bests of 9.700 and 9.750, respectively. The lowest score BYU had to count on the event was a 9.625 as the floor workers contributed solid routines.

BYU also topped the 48 mark on the vault with a score of 48.250 while notching scores of 47.750 on the beam and 47.525 on the uneven bars. Southern Utah’s top score came on the floor at 49.175 as the Thunderbirds showed why they are ranked among the top 25 in the nation in that event. All five counting Thunderbird scores on the floor were 9.800 or higher, topped by a 9.875 from Jenna Vogt.

Cougar Danielle Goldman competed in the all-around for the third time this season with a score of 36.475. SUU’s Vogt won the individual title at 39.225.

BYU will now return home for the first time since Jan. 9 as the Cougars host San Jose State, Boise State and Utah State in quad meet action. The meet will be held Friday in the Marriott Center beginning at 7 p.m.

PROVO -- For the second-straight week, the BYU women’s gymnastics team will face off against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds on the road. After posting their highest score of the season last week in a quad meet that featured SUU along with No. 1 Utah and Texas Woman’s, the Cougars will take on the Thunderbirds this Friday at SUU (7 p.m.).

“We are looking forward to go to Southern Utah,” said BYU head coach Brad Cattermole. “We started to see some good things during our meet at Utah last week. We are extremely young, but everyone is now starting to feel like they are capable of things that earlier they weren't as confident about. Hopefully we are starting to turn the corner and are heading in the right direction.”

The Cougars have every reason to feel confident heading into this week coming off their best performance of the year. BYU’s season-high score of 192.850 last week included top season marks of 49.100 on the vault and 48.100 on the floor.

Nine individuals posted career highs in at least one event led by freshman Krysten Koval, who bested her previous career marks in all three events in which she competed, and junior Megan Donehue. The team co-captain tallied career-high scores on the vault (9.875) and the balance beam (9.825) while recording a new season high on the uneven bars (9.725). She had the top Cougar score on the bars while tying for team-high honors on the beam and vault. She and Koval each posted a 9.875 on the vault on back-to-back runs, the highest score recorded by any Cougar on any event this year.

Several freshmen are also starting to find their way within a roster that features no seniors and more newcomers than sophomores and juniors combined. Six freshmen have competed for BYU this year as Emiko Ono, Holland Davis, Natalie Eyre, Jennifer Lezeu, Mickell Merrell and Koval have made significant contributions.

Southern Utah went almost two points better than the Cougars in the meet with a score of 194.325. Elise Wheeler had the top Thunderbird mark of the night with a 9.825 on the balance beam.

Friday’s competition will be the second of three meetings between the Cougars and Thunderbirds with the final faceoff scheduled for Feb. 27 at BYU. Live stats and live video will be available for this week’s meet and can be found by going to the schedule page of the BYU women’s gymnastics homepage at www.byucougars.com/gymnastics_w/.