The women's gymnastics team, ranked No. 12 nationally, has won the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship eight times -- every year since its beginning in 1983.

At 6 tonight at George Washington, in their last A-10 Championship, the Lady Lions expect to win their ninth A-10 title and leave the A-10 as the only winner of all time.

"We're just looking at it like 'Wouldn't it be the icing on the cake?" Coach Judi Avener said.

Only seven of the A-10 teams compete in gymnastics. Penn State is seeded first in the competition, followed by West Virginia, George Washington, Massachusetts, Temple, Rhode Island and Rutgers.

Avener expects West Virginia, George Washington and Massachusetts to be the most competitive.

"I don't know what West Virginia has done lately," she said. "They could be mounting more of a threat than I'm aware."

However, statistics show that Penn State is favored to win the competition.

West Virginia is ranked No. 25 nationally and its average is in the 186 range. The other teams are all ranked below No. 30 nationally.

"I think there's a chance that we could be overconfident," Avener added.

Avener said the Lady Lions had a hard time focusing in practice at the beginning of the week because of last weekend's performance. Penn State finally performed well before a home audience, setting the all-time record, a 191.95, as well as a few individual records. On top of all that it was senior night.

"We've tried very hard to battle that by setting very high standards this week and demanding a lot of them in practice so they didn't have the luxury of resting on their laurels," Avener said.

"Any time that you assume that you are the best team, there's a tendency to overlook the fact that you could lose," she added.

C. Chollett-Norton, coach of Rutgers team, said she doesn't think Penn State acts like it is better than the other teams.

"It's somewhat the Penn State attitude to just go ahead and do it," Norton said.

She added that Penn State is one of the strongest teams in the Northeast region.

"I think this year's team in much better than Judi's had in the past," she said.

Norton said her team, ranked last among its competitors, is not intimidated at all by the other teams.

"My team has proven itself," she said. "We know that we won't win but we want to do as well as we can."

"If we could score a 184, a season high, that would be a big success," she added.

Penn State is going to try to think of the A-10 Conference as if it were the NCAA regional competition, to be held April 6 in New Hampshire.