In every sports team's season, there is always at least one week off. At times, this week can provide much needed rest for exhausted team members. For others, however, the week can halt momentum and ruin a season.

This weekend, the No. 23 Penn State women's gymnastics team (4-8) aims for the former when they face the No. 5 University of Nebraska (9-2) at 1 p.m. Sunday in the Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln, Neb.

"We are really hoping that this week off for us will turn out to be a positive," Assistant Coach Jessica Bastardi said. "We have added more difficulty, and have focused on hitting quality routines in the gym. With the added time, we can focus on little details that can cost us valuable points in the long run."

Two weeks ago, the Nittany Lions finished third out of four teams in a quadrangular meet with No. 13 Florida, No. 8 Stanford, and Illinois-Chicago. Junior Katie Rowland won the all-around with a 39.425 and tied the school record of a 9.950 on vault.

The Cornhuskers are coming off a first place finish last week at the Master's Classic, where they scored a season-high 197.150 in the all-around and set a new school record with a 49.675 on beam. Overall, Nebraska leads the series with the Lions 9-5, and has claimed consecutive wins since 1996.

"Nebraska is obviously a tough team to face," Bastardi said. "However, we are trying not to focus on the outcome of the meet, since the win-loss record is not much of a factor in terms of the way we look at our post-season. We just have to hit each routine and have each girl do her job, and see where that gets us."

One of the big changes for the Nittany Lions over the past week has been an increase in fighting for spots in the line-up. For the first time this year, the team has a majority of healthy gymnasts, all eager to compete and fortify their place on the squad. As usual, juniors Katie Rowland, Katie McAvoy, Lisa Campagnolo, and Leslie Bair are expected to lead the team in the all-around. Sophomore Dina Sulyma, fully healed from her injuries of the last two seasons, will compete floor, while fellow sophomore Kelly Streicher and junior Julia Stoloski will battle for spots in the floor and beam line-ups.

In Nebraska, there will be a familiar face awaiting them.

During the summer, sophomore Richelle Simpson transferred to the Cornhuskers, leaving behind many close friends, including Rowland and McAvoy from their competitive days in Canada.

"It will be really different for the team to see Richelle now," Bastardi said.

may be hard to see her dressed in red, and many of the girls had a big history with her before coming to Penn State.

However, we have to focus on the competition, not the change. She has had a lot of success at Nebraska so far, and we wish her well."

After the meet at Nebraska, the Nittany Lions return home at 7 pm on March 9 in Rec Hall to face the No. 17 Maryland Terps, and the Rhode Island Rams.

"We are really excited about our next home meet," Bastardi said.

"Instead of a double dual with the men, it is just us competing, and we hope to have the local community come out to support us."