Despite a heartbreaking fourth-place finish for the Penn State women's gymnastics team Saturday night at the NCAA Northeast Regionals, one team member vaulted herself all the way to the NCAA championships on April 15-17.

Junior Lisa Clark earned a trip to Los Angeles with first-place performances on both the vault and floor exercise at the meet. The top two finishers in each event advanced to the national championships.

"Oh my God, I was not expecting [to compete at Nationals] at all," a jubilant Clark said. "I'm excited to represent Penn State."

Clark's 9.95 on the vault brought a roar from the Rec Hall crowd. Immediately after she landed, Clark ran to Penn State women's gymnastics coach Steve Shephard, who could hardly contain his excitement as he gave her a congratulatory hug.

The crowd went wild and launched into the "We are ... Penn State" chant in honor of Clark.

A short time after it died down, Clark's teammates were so energized that they even started the same chant all by themselves.

Teammate Jennifer Orlando said the performance typified Clark's actions all year.

"She always builds up the team's excitement and gets us pumped up," Orlando said.

Clark's career-high performance on the vault ended a terrific sequence by the team that included a 9.85 by Genavieve Shingle, a career-high 9.90 by Meredith Hoover, and a 9.85 by Kate Stopper.

The combined team score of 49.50 was the highest for the team this season.

"I thought our vault performance was tremendous," Shephard said. "I just told Lisa it was a great job."

However, it was not a perfect night for Clark.

She had a fall on the bars later in the evening that hurt Penn State's chances in the meet.

But after the event ended, the focus was on Clark's achievements for the night as she smiled and made her way to the podium to be recognized for her first-place finishes.

Now it only remains to be seen how Clark will end her season in Los Angeles.

"She's really focused when it comes to extremely pressured situations," Orlando said.

"I think she's going to do a great job."