The scene was oddly familiar. A Michigan gymnast landed her final jump, threw up her hands, and flashed a smile to the applauding crowd, only to be crushed several moments later with a mediocre score, just as it had happened several times earlier in the night.

Nevertheless, the 15th-ranked Wolverines (2-0 Big Ten, 3-0 overall) needed their final two floor performances — phenomenal runs by freshman Natalie Beilstein and junior Kylie Botterman — to secure a slim 194.20-193.75 victory over No. 19 Michigan State at Crisler Arena.

Sure, Michigan came out with the win, but the Wolverines know there's much room for improvement.

“We improved in some areas, and we had some mistakes," senior Sarah Curtis said. "Overall, it was good for us to get out there. The more we have under our belt, the better we get at doing them, and we get the nervous shakes.”

But before the team makes any drastic changes, it must consider the conservative officiating.

“I thought the judging was pretty tight tonight, and it was a little frustrating,” Michigan coach Bev Plocki said. “But we're going to have that, and I guess it's better that we find out right now what kind of stuff they're accepting so we can go back in practice, and see what we can do to get higher scores.”

The Spartans (2-1, 5-1) saw their share of questionable scores, but while they struggled in the opening acts on the uneven bars, their proficiency on the floor exercise and on the balance beam pulled them five one hundredths of a point behind Michigan after three events.

While the Michigan fans roared at the judges after each controversial score went up, the meet was closer than necessary due to Wolverines' mistakes, according to Plocki, who pointed to three falls as major contributors to the small margin of victory.

“I'm obviously disappointed with the falls we had on beam,” Plocki said. “We train beam in practice like we're champs, and you can see by the scores of the kids who hit that we are a very good beam team, but sometimes when you have a fall … it puts a lot of pressure on people coming up later in the lineup.”

On a night when tumbles and low scores plagued the Wolverines, Curtis was definitely a leader, winning the individual bar and beam events with totals of 9.825 and 9.875 respectively, as well as earning the all-around award with a 39.275.

“We expect (Sarah) to do that in her role, as experienced as she is,” Plocki said. “We need to be able to count on her in pressure situations, and tonight she came through for us.”

Another outstanding performer was freshman Natalie Beilstein, who made another bid for Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors with a second terrific meet. Beilstein took the vault with a 9.875 and tied Botterman with a floor routine pegged at 9.825.

“It has been wonderful to see that (Natalie) is coming out and coming into her own and competing the way that she's trained,” Plocki said. “ She is a freshman, and while most freshmen are uptight, they're nervous, they're scared, she just goes out there and lets it all hang out.”

Curtis expects the team to use this meet as the building block for a stronger showing, especially with a matchup against No. 9 Nebraska looming.

“I think we have places where we obviously need to improve,” Curtis said. “But we'll get back in the gym, work hard, and hopefully we have a better meet come Nebraska.”