After months of strength training and skill building, the Penn State men's gymnastics team finally gets the chance to show off the results to a home crowd.

"These guys work all year and there is nothing like competing at home, especially in Rec Hall," head coach Randy Jepson said.

"I'm excited for the older guys because they have been to many different places for meets and know how great it is at home."

The team will open its home slate against the University of Massachusetts at 7 p.m. in Rec Hall on Saturday in a double dual match with the women's team. The women will face the University of Denver.

Tomorrow's meet will be the first time the freshmen will compete in Rec Hall.

"The younger guys probably haven't performed in front of that many people before, so we'll see how they respond," Jepson said.

After participating and winning in the West Point Open last Friday and Saturday and finishing the training phase of the season, the team has started to become run down.

However, it is not going to let that stop it from reaching its goals.

"It has been a rough week because we are worn out from West Point," junior Zack Rhoeder said.

"Hopefully we'll pick it up in practice and be ready for the weekend."

During practices, the team concentrated on pommel horse its weakness at the Open.

Jepson is also hoping for a better hit percentage at tomorrow's meet, since the team missed at least half of its routines at West Point.

UMass will not be one of the bigger meets of the season, but nonetheless, it is still important for the team to remain focused.

"This meet could be closer than some of the guys think. I'm not counting them (UMass) out." Jepson said. "They have some pretty solid performers."

One of those performers is sophomore Patrick McFarlin.

McFarlin claimed the floor exercise title and a share of first-place on pommel horse at the West Point Open, helping the Minutemen to a second-place finish.

The Lions competed against the Minutemen at the West Point Open, but because of the way the sport is set up, it will not be a huge advantage.

The team will need to build upon their experiences of the past weekend.

"We're really strong. We just need to get stronger on (pommel) horse to pick up points," junior all-arounder Matt Abboud said. "We just need to do the same things as at West Point, but better."

The most important thing to come out of the West Point Open was getting a competition under their belt and show the team members where they stand.

"We got the first jitters out of the way over the weekend," junior Jay Kim said. "Everyone is looking solid, so we'll go out with more confidence."