The Penn State women's gymnastics team will kick off its season at home tomorrow night as it competes with Arizona and No.5 Alabama. The event will begin at 7 in Rec Hall.

Coach Shephard is confident about his team's ability to perform at this point in the season and said the team's chance for success is "very good."

"It's going to come down to consistency and execution and being able to hit in the pressure zone," Shephard said.

The team has high goals for this season, including taking home the Big Ten Championship and qualifying for the national championship competition.

"We'd like to continue on the success that we had last year," Shephard said. "We qualified for the national championships, and we were second in the Big Ten."

Penn State's strong points are the team's level of difficulty and depth, while executions remain a weakness.

"We could be a little cleaner," Shephard said.

Team captain senior Meredith Hoover is optimistic that this will be a winning season for Penn State.

"I think we are going to do really well," Hoover said. "We've got great routines and a lot of experience."

Hoover also noted that the Nittany Lions have a unique edge to them -- a quality that sets them apart from other teams.

"We are driven to prove ourselves," Hoover said.

Also a team captain, junior Corissa Pirkl said that Penn State has a really strong team.

"We have a really good chance to make it to nationals and the super six," Pirkl said.

The team captains were chosen by their teammates so they are regarded as highly dedicated and responsible individuals.

As far as the competition level of this weekend's meet is concerned, Shephard said Penn State's focus is not really on the other teams.

"I really don't know what to expect," Shephard said. "We are more concerned on our own team -- making sure they are focused on what they have control over."

Alabama is ranked a little higher than Penn State and has a more highly ranked recruiting class while Arizona has a fairly young team this year.

"We try to focus on just ourselves and our performance and not really who we are playing against," Hoover said. "But this weekend is going to be really big."

The Lions will be facing a few setbacks this weekend, including the absence of junior Gena Shingle, who had surgery on her shoulder, and sophomore Kristal Uzelac, who has retired from the squad and withdrawn from school as a sophomore.

The loss of these team members will impact the team, but Shephard said the rest of the squad is ready to perform.

"They've been working real hard all preseason," Shephard said. "I feel like they are prepared and I expect that they will do their job."

Notes

Penn State women's gymnastics head coach Steve Shephard has signed on five girls to the squad who will compete in the 2006-2007 season: Alex Brockway from Macungie, Allie Southard from Nanuet, N.Y., Lindsey Montross from Roseville, Calif., Brandi Personett from St. Louis and Casey Rohrbaugh from Spring Grove.