In the next week, the women's gymnastics team will face the best of the southwest, as it meets eight teams in three away meets. The Lady Lions start their flurry of events tomorrow against UCLA, California State-Fullerton and New Mexico University at 7 at the UCLA Invitational.

"It'll be some tough competition on the road," assistant coach Steve Shephard said. "The main goal is to hit routines and get a higher score."

The competition promises to get more intense when Penn State encounters the No. 1 Utah at 7:30 Monday night. Along with host Utah, the Lady Lions will battle Iowa State and Brigham Young.

For its third quad meet of the week, the Lady Lions will travel back to California to take on Cal State-Fullerton again, this time at Cal State's home, along with Boise State and Stanford.

"It's hard to say how we'd stack up against those teams without seeing them, whether we have a chance to beat them," Shephard said.

Shephard said the team hopes to score higher because the judging in the southwest tends be slightly higher. Penn State (6-1) is ranked 20th and hit its highest score last weekend, 186.35.

Penn State will be without all-arounders Lynn Crane and Tracy Salvino. Crane, who has been out of action since Jan. 27 because of a foot injury, will practice with her former coach at home in Pittsburgh. She is expected to return to compete in two weeks. Salvino is suffering from a nerve problem in her wrists and is out indefinitely.

Shephard said the team will use similar lineups to those used in recent meets. Allison Barber and Kim Thrasher have taken over the top all-arounder spots, but will be given some breaks when Laurie Russo and possibly Rene Lyst, Janice Rogers and Susan Docherty will fill in as all-arounders.

"It's going to be a lot harder on my body," Barber said. "In the next two weeks I'll have competed in four meets. It's going to be a big change."

Utah, which placed fifth at NCAAs last year, will present the biggest challenge and is riding a crest of record-breaking highs. After smashing the school's highest-score team record with a 193.40 mark two weeks ago, Utah (7-0) again broke the record in last week's win over Alabama with a 193.75.

Missy Marlowe leads Utah on the all-around with a high score of 39.05, followed by Kristen Konoyer and Shelly Schaerr, scoring highs of 38.75 and 38.70, respectively.

The Lady Lions start in the heat of competition tomorrow against sixth-ranked UCLA (6-2). UCLA posted a team high score of 189.50 and is led by senior all-arounders Jill Andrews and Kim Hamilton, who have top scores of 38.70 and 38.80, respectively.

Another team in the invite, Cal State-Fullerton (6-5), was ranked sixth last week.