The captains of the Penn State women's gymnastics team have added pressure on them this season -- and it has nothing to do with competition and wanting to win.

Senior Nikki Bongiovanni and junior Leslie Bair were chosen by their teammates to lead the team, but while Bair will lead by example on the mat, Bongiovanni will have to give her opinion from the sideline.

After landing on her shoulder in November during preseason by failing to reconnect on a release move on the uneven bars, Bongiovanni had to have arthroscopic laser surgery last week to correct the injury to her rotator cuff. Although Bongiovanni fell correctly with her arms in front of her during the fall, she landed more heavily on her right side, pushing her shoulder down into her armpit. The injury will keep her out of competition for the season, but she will use her fifth year of eligibility to compete next season, after red-shirting her sophomore year due to a knee injury.

According to Penn State coach Steve Shephard, it will take Bongiovanni about four months to recover completely and be ready for next season. Originally Bongiovanni was supposed to have reconstructive surgery, but the doctors were able to repair the injury without making any incisions.

"It (the laser surgery) was a lot less invasive than what it would have been," Shephard said. "We're hoping that she will have a real good result."

Bongiovanni and her teammates are hoping the same thing. She was scheduled to compete in the all-around competition this season and was replaced in the lineup.

"I had a lot of expectations," Bongiovanni said about the season. "I came in really ready and pumped up in the fall. I had a really good preseason and my gymnastics were awesome...I was really motivated and looking forward to the season and then at the end of the preseason this happened and my heart dropped."

And the dreams she had for herself for the season ended as well -- but not for her team.

Bongiovanni still goes to every practice and the home meets, although she does not travel with the team.

"It's a little difficult," junior Lisa Campagnolo said about Bongiovanni's absence on the mat and at away meets. "She calls us on the cell phone. We know she's thinking about us and we keep in touch when we are away and I think that's really important."

But Bair has picked up the slack to make up for Bongiovanni's absence at away meets.

"Leslie has always been a great leader for us," junior Katie Rowland said.

And at the SEC Challenge last weekend, she showed her team that even more. Bair competed first in three of four events which makes it harder to score high according to coach Shephard.

"If I'm confident, that's just going to help everyone else's scores," Bair said about going first in the lineup. "I have to look at it like that."

While Bair is the captain on the team that can turn every situation into a positive one, Bongiovanni is the captain that demands the most out of herself and her teammates.

And the two believe it's the perfect combination.

"I help them with little corrections here and there," Bongiovanni said. "It's stuff they don't hear from the coaches every day. It's easier for me to be more involved because Les still has to worry about herself. We get along really good, our philosophies are the same. I love being captain with Les. We are both looking down the same road."

So although the pressure is on both of them in different ways this season, they are facing that pressure together.