The women's gymnastics team almost fell victim to its emotions Saturday night.

The Lady Lions (11-5) were flooding Rec Hall with tears before their quadrangular meet with New Hampshire, West Virginia and Massachussetts -- the final dual meet for seniors Janice Rogers, Jada Hiltabrand and Laurie Russo.

"They kept doing this blubbering thing before the meet," Coach Judi Avener said, "and I said, 'Let's concentrate on winning the meet first and then we can (do that).' "

So the Lady Lions dried their eyes, took to the Rec Hall floor and recorded their highest score in school history, a 194.75 in front of 2,402 fans. West Virginia (21-7-1) finished second with 191.4, New Hampshire (15-6) was third with a 188.55 and Massachussetts (9-7) recorded a 186.45. Junior Allison Barber broke her own school record with a 39.3 all-around score.

"We just went out and we had fun," Russo said, "and we still stayed intense and just really concentrated and had a blast."

A blast?

"We planned all week just to have fun tonight," she added. "(We tried) to stay intense while we were doing the event and when we came off the event we relaxed."

And right from the start, that was the case. Penn State scored a school record 48.5 on the vault --its nemesis earlier this season.

"This was our first meet that with our vaulting lineup we had something totally different," Russo said.

Sophomore Coby Silver scored a 9.65 in her first appearance of the season, and freshman Karen Cimochowski unveiled a new vault, scoring a 9.6. Sophomore April Polito -- competing in her first-ever all-around -- and Barber capped off the event with a 9.8 and a 9.85, respectively.

"I really thought having Polito back in several events was going to help and I knew that having the vaulters in was really going to help," Avener said.

Polito's only mistake of the night came on the uneven bars, when she tumbled to the mat on her dismount and scored a 9.15. But that was easily compensated for by Barber, Cimochowski, Hiltabrand, freshman Tracy Kerner and Rogers -- none scored under a 9.75, and Hiltabrand tied a school record with a 9.9.

The Lady Lions survived two falls on beam to score a 48.1, and capped off the meet with a 49.05 on the floor.

Polito's commanding floor exercise, performed to "Bad to the Bone," received a school-record 9.9 and gave her an all-around score of 38.6. Just minutes later, Rogers' elegant floor routine was awarded identically to cap off the meet and shatter the former team record of a 193.8.

After the meet, the senior tri-captains were presented with their traditional senior blankets.

"It was really hard (to compete), but in the beginning I just tried to remember that it wasn't our night," said Russo. "And at the end I dealt with the emotions."

Afterwards, Avener was reluctant to overrate the team's performance -- and the possibility that the Lady Lions are national championship contenders.

"I think it's far too early for that and I think that's a little bit overstated," she said. "We've got to first make it there and then we can talk about what the realistic opportunities of placement are."

Russo had a different opinion, however.

"I think after (No. 1 Utah and No. 2 Georgia) see this score they're going to be scared," she added.