Entering the last rotation of the Michigan women’s gymnastics team’s meet against Minnesota, the Wolverines’ lead was precarious at best.

But despite a nerve-racking beam performance, the Wolverines hung on to win by 0.65 points at the Sports Pavilion in Minneapolis on Saturday.

“There is never security in a gym meet when you are ending on beam,” Michigan coach Bev Plocki said. “Beam is really one of those events when you can have a great day and be consistent, but for no apparent reason, when you’re going into balance beam, there is never security.”

Because of the way rotation works in an all-around dual meet, the visiting team usually faces beam as its last rotation.

Ahead by two-tenths of a point going into beam, Michigan (3-0 Big Ten, 7-2 overall) had no idea if it would be able to secure the victory. A loss would have been its first conference defeat in almost two years.

With six athletes competing in each event and five counted scores, the gymnasts had a small margin of error, one that Michigan was thankful for after the weekend dual.

“I think that there are improvements being made every week,” Plocki said. “It’s just that we have to put all the pieces together in the same competition. This is just a team that needs to gain experience and perform, and that will happen as we progress through the season.”

Sophomore Kylee Botterman, competing for the first time in all-around competition for the Wolverines, helped the team to victory. Although inexperienced, she won both the vault and floor exercises.

In an unusual finish to the dual, Minnesota awarded Botterman a Most Valuable Player award.

“I was a little nervous, but not too much,” Botterman said about competing in the all-around. “Everyone for the most part had a great meet, and I am just excited to go home next weekend and compete all-around in our home arena with our own fans and the crowd cheering us on.”

But not all Michigan's gymnasts had as much success as Botterman. Two athletes fell on the beam, meaning one of those scores was counted.

It’s rare that a team can win a meet when it must count a fallen score, and in the last rotation of the meet, the Wolverines had no chance to make up for their mistakes.

“It was totally up in the air when we had to count the fall on beam,” Plocki said. “When the second person fell, we thought we had probably lost the meet, but (Minnesota) had their second person fall.”

All the Golden Gophers had to do to secure the win was to earn a 9.4 or better in their last floor routine, an easy feat for a collegiate gymnast.

But Saturday, it was not so easy.

After her first tumbling pass, Minnesota senior Jade Beattie landed awkwardly and injured herself. Unable to finish, she was forced to quit and receive a score of 2.0, giving the Wolverines their third Big Ten victory of the season.

“That’s the kind of experience we need, being in close competition like this where there is only a tenth or so separating the teams," Plocki said. "We have to thrive under that pressure and I think we did. We gained a lot of valuable experience today in this situation.”