Wins and losses don't matter in the sport of women's gymnastics -- it's the individual team score that counts. After all, it's the high scores that propel teams into the postseason, not their records. Penn State women's gymnastics coach Steve Shephard has said that all season. The No. 21 Nittany Lions (6-10, 1-0 Big Ten) begin their first postseason competition 6 p.m. tomorrow in Columbus, Ohio at the Big Ten Championships.

The Lions are currently ranked fifth in the Big Ten out of the seven teams that will compete in the meet this weekend. Michigan leads the way, followed by Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan State. Ohio State and Illinois rank behind them.

But the Lions have had to make some changes over the last week in their lineup. During the final meet of the season against West Virginia on March 16, junior Katie McAvoy sprained her left ankle at the end of a tumbling pass during her floor routine forcing her out of competition this weekend. McAvoy, an all-around athlete for the Lions, will have to be replaced in all four events. Shephard said he is still unsure as to whether McAvoy will be healthy enough to return for the NCAA Regionals being held at Penn State on April 6.

"We need everyone to do everything possible to help our team score what we are capable of doing," Shephard said. "Even without McAvoy we have a good quality team. We can't give up at this point. Despite the setback, we need to brush ourselves off."

Leading Penn State this weekend will be Katie Rowland, Lisa Campagnolo and co-captain Leslie Bair.

The three all-around juniors have been solid for the team all season, including Rowland's record setting performance against Rhode Island and Maryland, where she scored a 39.725 in the all-around, breaking the school record she set last year. Rowland is currently ranked eighth in the nation in the all-around as well as 21st on floor, 16th on beam, and 11th on vault.

Michigan, currently ranked first in the Big Ten and fifth in the nation, also brings with it a group of solid athletes to try and defend its Big Ten championship for the fourth year in a row. They bring with them the No. 1 and No. 2 all-around gymnasts in the country -- Calli Ryals and Elise Ray, respectively. Ryals is currently ranked second on floor after scoring three perfect tens on the event this season. Her teammate has also scored a perfect ten this season on vault. Ray tied the school record and her career high of a 39.825 against Denver and Washington earlier this season. Despite the success of the two sophomores, Michigan coach Beverly Plocki says the team hasn't concentrated on the fact that the two are ranked so high in the current standings.

In fact, she said the team didn't realize Ryals and Ray were ranked first and second until the Michigan school paper did a story on it.

"It's awesome and we're excited about that, but our team is a team and we have a job to do as a team," Plocki said. "No one or two individuals accomplish a task, it's the whole team that will do it."

But the other teams competing this weekend will try to give the Wolverines a run for their money. Ohio State hosts the competition and will bring with it last week's Big Ten Gymnast of the Week Tiffany Janke.

According to the Buckeyes website, Ohio State (4-14, 2-4 Big Ten) needs to do well this weekend to qualify for regionals. No. 11 Minnesota will bring with it MaryAnne Kelley, who is currently ranked sixth in the nation on floor and beam.

Iowa returns to Ohio State for the second weekend in a row where they will try for a different outcome than last week. Iowa lost to Ohio State in its final regular season meet of the season.

No. 20 Michigan State will also try to increase its standings this weekend by going for the championship. The team currently ranks 24th on floor and 14th on beam in the nation. After last weekend's loss to West Virginia, Shephard said the team has spent time regrouping. The Lions had a team meeting on Monday to discuss the problems they had against the Mountaineers.

"We're working on giving the athletes more confidence to be able to not make the mistakes they are making mentally," Shephard said. "We need to step it up in terms of intensity, but it's not a physical problem."

The Lions will try and correct those problems this weekend in preparation for further post season action. And like Shephard has said, it's not the wins or losses that count.

"We want to do the very best gymnastics we can to represent Penn State University and our Penn State family, and make everyone proud," Shephard said.