After loss to UCLA, Gymwomen hoping to improve against Illinois

By GWENN MILLER
Collegian Staff Writer

Tomorrow night, the Penn State women's gymnastics team will have the chance to do what it has not been able to all season -- turn in a solid performance on the road.

The No. 5 Lady Lions (5-2) will travel to Illinois to meet the Fighting Illini (4-3) at 7 p.m. tomorrow in Huff Hall. It will be a competition in which the Lions are hoping to make some significant improvements.

The Lions were handed their first losses of the season last week at the hands of Stanford and UCLA. This created a bit of a stir, considering Penn State's record going into the meet was a perfect 5-0.

During a brief team meeting following last weekend's meet, Penn State's three captains told the team to find ways to increase its confidence level and improve on individual skills. According to senior tri-captain Missy Leopoldus, the team responded to the challenge.

"We've been working really, really hard and everyone is taking responsibility for their own workouts," she said.

And when she says everyone, she means it.

Despite Leopoldus' record-setting season, she still felt improvements could be made in her own routines. She has been taking steps on the landings of her vaults, so she added a new vault that has a higher degree of difficulty but is easier for her to land.

Leopoldus' initiative reflects the rest of the team's attitude when it comes to the upcoming meet.

"We need a good away score to redeem ourselves from last weekend at Stanford," said coach Steve Shephard.

However, the Lions are entering a situation that is slightly similar to last week.

Once again, the team will be going up against a coach who was once a Penn State gymnast. Lynn Brueckman, now the coach at Illinois, was the Atlantic 10 all-around champion as a freshman and a sophomore at Penn State. When she was a junior and senior, Shephard served as her assistant coach.

"He was a great technical coach," said Brueckman. "I learned more from him than other assistant coaches in my college career."

As far as admiration and respect goes, the feeling is mutual. Shephard praised Brueckman's attitude, saying it was always positive.

"She had a great work ethic and was a pleasure to coach," he said.

Fortunately for Shephard, his current team is displaying the same kind of attitude despite hitting a bump in the road.