Although the No. 23 women's gymnastics team has never lost to Indiana University of Pennsylvania (8-5) in six tries, the Lady Lions are not brushing off their meet against IUP tomorrow.

The Lady Lions (4-1), who will be without two of their all-arounders, are hosting the double-dual meet with the men's gymnastics team at 8 tomorrow in Rec Hall.

"Their highest score is a 182, which is in our league," Coach Judi Avener said. "So we have to keep our mind set on what we're doing. We're not assuming that we're going to walk away with this meet."

IUP won the Division II-III national championship last year.

All-arounders Lynn Crane and Tracy Salvino will be out of the meet because of injuries. Crane suffered a foot injury in the Alabama meet two weeks ago and Salvino is having problems in her arms and wrists.

But the team plans to depend on its depth to fill in for the injured gymnasts.

"Scorewise, it shouldn't affect us because all the other girls that are taking Lynn's place have the potential to score up in the nines, just like Lynn did," sophomore Kim Thrasher said. "The only difference is that Lynn's had more experience competing in college gymnastics than the freshmen have."

"Last year, it was hard," captain Carrie Arnesen said. "Now, we've got so much depth."

Sophomore Jada Hiltabrand will compete in her first meet of the season, performing on bars, after undergoing elbow surgery in the fall. Freshman Allison Barber and Thrasher will take the other all-around spots.

On the team's strongest event, the vault, Avener plans to keep the same lineup used against Alabama: Rene Lyst, Lisa Mallios, Arnesen, Paula Bright and the all-arounders. On bars, Kira Rohm and Susan Docherty are expected to join the all-arounders.

For the meet, particularly on the floor exercise, the team has added some difficulty to its routines. On floor exercise, Thrasher and Mallios will use a more difficult first tumbling pass. Both Barber and Laurie Russo are trying a harder second pass. Rohm, Russo and Barber are planning to add more difficulty to their bar routines.

"When you add them up, you've got 50 percent of our routines with more difficulty this week, which is a little scary," Avener said. "I think that whether or not we hit the difficulty in this meet could determine how much difficulty we use against Ohio State next weekend."

Avener said although the Lady Lions are not taking IUP lightly, the meet will be used as a warm-up for their second meeting with top rival Ohio State next week.

Last year, Penn State defeated IUP by a close score of 180.70-179.95.

This year, the team lost senior Rose Johnson, the 1989 all-around champion (Division II) in its first meet when she injured her leg. She is out for the season and may use the year as a medical redshirt.

Freshmen Dina Margolin and Dawn Favia lead the team on the all-around and junior Janine Palschakov is one of its top performers on uneven bars. Junior Mandi Petruska is one of IUP's top contenders on the balance beam and floor exercise.

While IUP suffered a loss to Kent State last week, Penn State was handed its first defeat two weeks ago against Alabama. The Lady Lions had last week off.

"It's kind of hard taking a week off," Thrasher said. "It's good because we get to rest . . . but, we're all ready to get out there and go against IUP."