Olympic rugby star and digital SI swimsuit model Ilona Maher has been entertaining us every week this fall season with her appearance on Dancing with the starswhere she impressed her fans with her skillful dance moves and amazing personality. Together with professional dancer partner Alan Bersten, the 28-year-old athlete has danced the rumba, the jive and other popular dances. It’s no surprise that many are rooting for her now that season 33 is still airing, and last week’s episode was especially positive for the couple.

During Dedication Night on October 15, Maher and Bersten performed a rumba to the song “My Way” by Yseult, resulting in thunderous applause. Like the majority of the other couples, the duo achieved a 32 out of 40. We have now started a new week and DWTS celebrated the House of Mouse tonight. With Disney Night on October 22, Maher and Bersten chose to dance to a song from the beloved 2021 animated film Encanto‘Surface pressure.’

Maher and Bersten danced jazz tonight and looked great. Maher dressed in a Luisa Madrigal costume but with a twist, consisting of a white crop top with off-the-shoulder sleeves and a red bow, a blue skater skirt and white sneakers. She also wore a red ribbon in her hair to complete the look. Hilariously, her professional partner dressed up as one of the village donkeys from the film.

In their first performance of the evening, Maher and Bersten received a score of 25 out of 30. Derek called Maher a “crowd favorite” and said the duo embodied the characters, although he admitted he wished Maher danced a little more. Here’s the judges’ summary of the pair’s performance:

Tonight is a special evening DWTSbecause not only did the couples get to dance individually as usual, but they also performed another dance after being split into two teams at the end of the episode. Maher was the captain of Team Goofs and her group danced to the song ‘Eye to Eye’ A crazy movie. The celebrities from each team were also tasked with dancing solo during the group performances, which understandably seemed a little intimidating for everyone.

Here’s what each of the judges thought of Team Goofs’ performance:

This brought Team Goofs to a total of 27 out of 30 points.

After the group’s performance, Maher and Bersten climbed the leaderboard with a total of 52 points. They came in second place, right behind actress Chandler Kinney and pro Brandon Armstrong, so what happened when the viewers’ votes came in? Well, Maher and Bersten ended up being the second couple announced safely for this week, which means they’re moving on to the next episode!

The couple was eliminated during this week’s episode DWTS season 33 featured Phaedra Parks and Val Chmerkovskiy, who seemed like the possibility of working together during their exit interview.

Ahead of tonight’s new episode of DWTSMaher and Bersten took to Instagram to tease them Encanto achievements and encourage their fans to vote for them. As expected, fans flocked to the comments sections of the posts to share their love, with one even telling the Olympian: “If they ever make a live-action Encantoyou MUST be Luisa!” We agree.

Maher was the digital cover star of SI Swimsuit in September, about a month after she and Team USA took home the bronze medal for rugby sevens at the Paris Olympics. As an advocate for body positivity, Maher has been an incredible role model, especially this year. In September, she gave advice to young female athletes, saying: “I think as women sometimes we look at our bodies as something to be objectified and that our bodies are so much more than that, and sports can show us what they can do . So try it all out, also remember that strength is truly powerful and your body is for a purpose.

New episodes of Dancing with the stars Season 33 airs Tuesday nights at 8:00 PM ET/PT on ABC and streaming on Disney+. Next week we’ll embrace the spooky season with a Halloween-themed episode!