Penn State women's gymnastics coach Steve Shephard started to see his team really come together last weekend for the first time this season -- but so did Illinois coach Bob Starkell.

The teams each claimed their first dual-meet win of the season, and will be riding a new-found confidence into Saturday's 1 p.m. meet against each other at Rec Hall.

"They've been training really hard," Shephard said about his team. "And they are ready to put it all together. Regardless of the win (last weekend), they are starting to get more confident about getting through their routines without making mistakes."

Last weekend 2001 Big Ten Gymnast of the Year Katie Rowland set season-high records on both vault and balance beam with scores of 9.900 and 9.925 respectively, and won the all-around competition with a 39.475. The score was her highest all-around score this year.

Juniors Katie McAvoy and Leslie Bair also pulled their own weight en route to the team's victory. Bair and McAvoy came in second and third respectively in the all-around.

The mistakes that Shephard has been seeing over the last few meets have been dwindling and he hopes to see that continue this weekend.

"What I'm trying to get them to do is not let any outside variables affect their performance. And that's tough to maintain that focus," Shephard said.

Starkell's team will try to maintain that same focus in the confines of Rec Hall. However, Starkell says his team is excited about the trip it will make this weekend to play the Lions.

"We know for sure it will be a tough competition," Starkell said. "We're going to make sure the team is a little more mentally prepared because the crowd is a factor at Rec Hall. But we like competing at Penn State. The fans are an added feature because they tend to award an opponent's team for doing good things as well."

Starkell also says his team is going to be using this weekend as practice for the end of the season when it will compete in the Big Ten Championships.

"We started off a little slow," Starkell said. "This last week was the best movement on improvement. We're trying to work on details, on the fine-tuning of the team. I think our gymnastics are good, we just need to try to present a little better to the judges to come out with a better score."

Both teams will try to impress the judges this weekend, but Shephard says for his team it's not the win that matters. It's just about improving.

"Their (the team's) goal is to compete with confidence and up to the level of their ability," he said.