The music starts, and the deep brown eyes widen enthusiastically as she begins her sophisticated movements across the floor.

For Janice Rogers, the floor exercise is not just an athletic event -- it's a performance. And it's what she does best.

"I'm a ham," the senior tri-captain admitted. "I like to entertain people."

Rogers can enthrall a crowd with her captivating style, the smooth tones from the opera Carmen guiding her motions across the mat.

Her floor exercise routine is simply an extension of her personality -- classy and elegant.

The Toms River, N.J., native has been an extensive contributor in breaking the cocoon which has transformed the women's gymnastics team from a caterpillar to a butterfly.

And in turn, Rogers has developed and matured from a nine-year-old scoring twos and threes to a capable student-athlete with a chance of becoming an All-American.

Two weeks ago, the Lady Lion all-arounder was named as a finalist for the American Award, given to the top collegiate female gymnast in the nation. It was an accolade which surprised even Rogers.

"It would just be an honor (to win)," she said. "Say I don't make it to All-American but I win that -- it would kind of cap everything off for my career."

Rogers' career has seen its share of ups and downs, beginning with her days at the Will-Moor Gymnastics Club -- which she joined after her sophomore year in high school.

That was where she first saw Coach Judi Avener -- when Avener was recruiting another Will-Moor gymnast during Rogers' junior year.

"I thought (Judi) had the greatest personality," Rogers said. "It was really neat because we hit it off even though she wasn't recruiting me."

Avener would be back the following year, after Rogers won the New Jersey High School regional championship.

"I wasn't really heavily recruited, and so I'm grateful to Penn State that they recruited me as much as they did," Rogers added. "Nobody was knocking down my door to get me."

"She was elegant, she was beautiful," Avener said. "I thought to myself, 'I can't wait to choreograph a floor routine for her, because she's just so beautiful.' "

At Penn State, Rogers was involuntarily thrust into the fire from the very beginning. Her freshman season saw a team decimated by injuries relying on three young freshmen -- Rogers, Kim Thrasher and Jada Hiltabrand.

"That year went by and it was over and I didn't really have a total grasp of what it was," Rogers said.

But while her freshman year was merely confusing, her sophomore year was downright depressing. Rogers gained weight and struggled academically, and found her confidence spiraling downward.

"My sophomore year was just a nightmare," she said. "The team unity wasn't there, the dedication wasn't there . . . we just had a lot of internal problems that year."

Penn State lost the Northeast Regional Championship to Ohio State that year, a team that it beat earlier in the season.

"We had the talent, but we didn't have the drive, the desire and the caring," Avener said.

The summer after that disappointing season, a metamorphosis took place. The Lady Lions began a program of weightlifting and dieting -- Rogers and classmate Laurie Russo were named the program's Athletes of the Summer.

"Last year was the best year that I have ever had at Penn State," Rogers said. "We had the unity, we had good leadership in Lynn (Crane), Paula (Bright) and Kira (Rohm) . . . just everything we did that year we were all going in the same direction."

The Lady Lions surprised the country with a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Championships, marking a triumphant return to the national spotlight.

However, Rogers was still having trouble piecing together her fragile psyche.

"I remember times when we'd have to do perfect beam routines and she'd go storming out of the gym pulling her hair out," Hiltabrand said.

"I just kept falling and falling and it seemed like I was never going to get up and stay on (last year)," she said, "until I was able to accept what I had to do . . . then I started to weed things out to see the clear path ahead of me."

"She's learned how to deal with (her confidence level) very well," Hiltabrand said. "I don't think I've seen her pull her hair once this year."

Part of the reason for that is because Rogers cut her flowing, dark hair -- but another factor in the change was based on a strange, slightly twisted psychology that Avener employed.

"I just knew if I could trip the right switch that Janice would work harder and that right switch was just getting her angry," Avener said. "I would walk up to her and intentionally say things that would upset her. I don't think that was a real positive way to motivate her but I knew it worked."

It helped Rogers to accept her role and to stop pressuring herself. After that, the switch clicked and the lights went on -- both individually and for the team.

"This year, people expect to see us, and expect us to be as good as we were last year," Rogers said.

Maybe even better. This year's team has assaulted the record book, scoring a school-record 194.75 last weekend in a quadrangular meet.

It's a team anchored by three very passive captains -- Rogers, Russo and Hiltabrand.

"If anyone is more outspoken in the three of us, it's Janice," Hiltabrand said. "(But) one of the biggest things about the team is the unity and the fact that you can't tell the difference between freshmen and seniors."

Except, perhaps, in the eyes.

"She's helped me because I can see the hard work and the determination and the desire even in her eyes during practice or even watching her warm up during a meet," Hiltabrand added.

That desire brought her individual recognition with the award nomination -- and in a month, she hopes that it can lead her to a higher goal.

"They asked me if I had a choice of winning the American award or winning the national championship with my team," Rogers said. "There wouldn't be any question. National championship . . . any day."