Do not arrive late when the women's gymnastics team hosts the University of New Hampshire at 2 p.m. on Sunday at Rec Hall because one New Hampshire gymnast may provide the Lady Lions with their biggest home challenge in the meet's first event, the vault.

New Hampshire's Lori Brady earned a high of 9.90 on vault this season and twice scored a 9.80. Lisa Mallios, who broke the school record with a 9.85 two weeks ago, will be vying with Brady. Freshman Allison Barber is right behind her, boasting a high of 9.80. The two will not be the only ones testing Brady, as five Lady Lion vaulters topped a vault team record a week ago, when they accumulated a 47.95.

But New Hampshire assistant coach Ed Datti said Brady is an exception on the team's vaulters.

"Vault is not one of our better events," he said. "We are much more solid on our other three events."

New Hampshire (8-4) came in third at NCAA Northeast Regionals last year, right behind Penn State and first-place Ohio State. It reached its highest score of the season in its last meet, posting a 185.25 against Northeastern. The score is 1.75 below Penn State's high score (187.00) made two weeks ago. Penn State holds a 5-2 edge over New Hampshire in its series.

"New Hampshire is a very good team," Coach Judi Avener said. "It's an up and coming team."

After a rigorous spring break with three meets and few workouts, the team has not rested over this past week.

"We're working out a lot (now)," captain Carrie Arnesen said. "Being away, we hadn't been able to work out as much. I guess we'll sacrifice being a little bit tired for the meet."

Avener plans on using much of the same lineup she has used in its recent meets. Lynn Crane, after suffering a foot injury Jan. 27, is expected to return to competition on the uneven bars. Barber and Kim Thrasher will remain as the team's two all-arounders, with Mallios, Laurie Russo and Janice Rogers most likely competing in three events each. Freshman Tracy Salvino is still on the injured list.

Avener expects the meet to be the Lady Lions' last testing ground to overcome any trouble spots in its additional difficulties before facing defending champion Georgia next week and the Atlantic 10 Championships in two weeks.

"You have to plan ahead," Avener said. "This is our last chance to do anything questionable. We decided to work really hard. That fatigue might show up (in the New Hampshire meet)."

"We definitely haven't reached our peak yet," Arnesen said. "We peaked in a lot of events, (but) as far as getting things together, it hasn't happened yet."

The team plans to even work out tomorrow and has been concentrating on improving its consistency on the balance beam. Avener said the team has spent five times as much time on beam as on the vault and floor exercise and triple the amount of the time on beam as on the uneven bars during the season.

Beam is not one of New Hampshire's difficulties, though. Last week, the team broke a school record with its highest team score on beam. Although Datti believes his team is strong on beam, uneven bars and floor exercise, he believes the uneven bars is its greatest forte.

"We just came off one of our better meets at home," Datti said. "We had a very strong team effort. We've been getting steadily better."

Brady also leads the team in the all-around with a high score of 37.40 in the team's last meet. Jan Dalziel is also in the all-around.