Up against its strongest opponent so far this season, the women's gymnastics team suffered two blows in its loss against Alabama, 187.00-184.10, Saturday night.

Not only did Alabama (5-0) hand Penn State (4-1) its first defeat, but the Lady Lions were dealt an unfair deck when minutes before the start of the meet, when top all-arounder Lynn Crane injured her foot in a warm-up vaulting routine and did not compete.

"It was a psychological blow to lose Lynn before the meet even started," Coach Judi Avener said. "It's a very young team, it's a team that rallied under a lot of pressure."

"I think we gave them a fight because coming that close to Alabama, that's a very big accomplishment for us," sophomore Kim Thrasher said. "And we did what we wanted to do. It would have been nice to win, but our job was to go out there and be aggressive and focus and be spirited and we definitely were all those things."

The Crimson Tide, which placed third at NCAAs last year and won the national championship two years ago, proved its reputation as a powerhouse.

Alabama swept the uneven bars, took first on balance beam and vault and shared first place on floor exercise in a three-way tie with Penn State's Thrasher. Alabama's Cherie Way, who performed on the uneven bars and floor, captured the Ann Carr Award given to the gymnast with the most inspirational performance.

"Our opening home meet was our best meet so far," Alabama coach Sarah Patterson said. "I think being on the road is a little bit different and we're just going to have to go back to get more consistent."

The Lady Lions broke the Alabama hold on the top spots when Thrasher won the all-around with 37.15 points, her highest score this season. Although she tied for first in floor exercise (9.5) with Way and Kim Masters, she did not break the top three in any of the other events.

"I wasn't adding the scores in my head and I didn't think that I had won," Thrasher said. "So I was shocked, I was surprised."

Despite Alabama's lead throughout the meet, Penn State gave a jolt to Alabama when it had only one fall in its six balance beam routines and improved last week's score of 45.60 to 46.30. Allison Barber tied for second place (9.5) with Alabama's Katherine Kelleher and Lady Lion Rene Lyst captured third (9.4). The improvement was a large one for the Lady Lions, who fell eight times in their opening meet two weeks ago.

Although Alabama's Gina Basile won the balance beam event with a 9.55, the Crimson Tide had three falls in its routines. Senior All-American Marie Robbins, who had a high score of 9.75 on the beam last year, broke and earned only a 8.85.

"Marie (Robbins) doesn't usually ever fall," Patterson said. "She was trying a new move for the first time and she was a little bit off. We were taking a few steps forward as far as doing a few new difficult moves and the inexperience showed a little bit, but I think that's something that we can clean up."

In its starting event, vault, Penn State's Barber (9.55) and Lisa Mallios (9.50) took second and third, respectively, behind Dee Dee Foster (9.65). Although the vault is Penn State's strongest event, the effect of losing Crane and having only a few minutes to warm up Crane's replacement, freshman Lyst, took its toll on the team. The vault team score of 46.50 fell blow last week's school-record score of 47.75.

"We just weren't clean on vault, I think we were still in shock about Lynn (Crane)," Avener said. "We didn't have much time to rally from that . . . and I think that affected our performance on bars."

Following the vault, the uneven bars was the weakest event for the Lady Lions (45.1) and the strongest for the Crimson Tide (47.5). Penn State broke on two of its routines, while Alabama's Way (9.6) won, Foster and Basile (9.5) took second and Tracey Tillman and Robbins (9.45) tied for third.