Junior Amber See stares at the uneven bars. She is a few seconds away from raising her hand for the judge and beginning her first bars routine since injuring her neck two weeks ago while competing on bars. She’s nervous.

See jumps onto the bars and flips back and forth effortlessly, spinning around and flying from one bar to the other. She lands after several spins and flips and takes a step before thrusting her hands in the air to the roaring approval of the crowd.

“I was really excited to just jump back on the horse,” said See, who scored a 9.750 on the event. “It was definitely a scary fall, and it shook me, but I was excited to get back out and let all the doubts and fears out of my mind. They asked me if I was ready to go and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m ready to go, I want to get this done.’ I was really nervous but I was happy to hit my routines and do my job for the team so I think it was a great way to come back today.”

The Illini women’s gymnastics team recorded two team scores of 49 or higher, and senior Alina Weinstein won two individual titles, but Penn State edged Illinois 196.300-195.775 for its first loss at home.

“I think that our performance (Saturday) showed who we could be,” head coach Kim Landrus said. “We had two events over a 49 and two near a 49, and thinking about the obstacles that we’ve had over the next two weeks, I really think that this team could be something special and we’re going to have to go back in the gym and really work on being stronger and being sure we can get the job done every weekend.”

Even with See back in the lineup, the Illini were missing six routines from their meet against the Buckeyes as both junior Sarah Fiedler and sophomore Kelsi Eberly didn’t compete because of injury.

“We definitely had different lineups this meet, so we were testing some things out,” See said. “I think that we stepped up and did our job. It was a bit of a challenge but we should be proud of who we put in (Saturday) and what they did.”

Illinois started its second co-ed home meet of the year on vault, which has been a weak point for the team all year. The Illini surprised the packed Huff Hall crowd by scoring a 49.075 as a team on the event — their highest event score on the day.

“I thought vault was great,” Weinstein said. “We’ve been struggling with vault since the start of season and I thought that (Saturday) was the first time we put it all together and did the best that we could with what we were working with.”

The Illini moved to bars next, where they scored a 48.875 as a team. Senior Jaclyn Kantecki led Illinois, finishing second overall with a 9.825.

Injuries took their toll on the Illini during the third rotation, where the team missed scores from Eberly and Fiedler, who both hold 9.850s on beam.

Landrus said she expects Fiedler to be back in the near future and that the team is trying to manage its lineup.

“I think that right now we’re trying to manage some issues of pain, some of the girls are hurting a little bit and we just need to figure out a way to manage them so that they can preform at their best.”

The Illini finished the meet strong with a 49.050 on floor, led by Weinstein and See with 9.900 and 9.850, respectively.

Illinois recorded nine scores over 9.825 or higher but still feels it can improve.

“Honestly, I think we did a good job, we weren’t great and we’re capable of being great so that was a little disappointing,” Weinstein said. “We just need to put it all together and put our heads in the game and elevate our standards.”

Nicholas can be reached at [email protected] and @IlliniSportsGuy.