It is a normal Monday afternoon practice. One girl is fine-tuning her floor routine. Another one is practicing her vault. Two more are working on the uneven bars. Two are sophomores. Two are freshmen. Their names are Aslynn Satterfield, Lindsay Borkan, Katie Perrett and Theresa Diehl, and all four of them have one major thing in common: they are the future of Penn State women's gymnastics.

On a team that is comprised mostly of juniors and seniors and is down three competitors because of season-ending injuries, these four girls are becoming more important to the team than they can even imagine -- or maybe they do.

Early into her sophomore season, Satterfield is already becoming a household name in Rec Hall. Her supporters have already formed her a fan club, although it is very small.

As a freshman, Satterfield performed at meets for practice, but none of her scores counted. This year, however, she has stepped up and her scores are finally showing. In her first collegiate meet, Satterfield scored a career best on vault, with a 9.7. A week later, in the meet against Cornell, West Virginia and Michigan, she had a career best and a first-place finish on floor, posting a score of 9.85.

"I feel like I've done really well this year," Satterfield said. "I've done both floor and vault at all three meets, and I've been one of the top scorers. I thought I worked really hard all summer and all preseason to get here."

In all three meets this season, her scores have been counted to the team total. After the loss of junior Amie Olaes, who was a primary contributor in this event, she has become a great asset to the vault lineup. Penn State women's gymnastics coach Steve Shephard is very happy with her performances this season and is looking for her to improve even more.

"Aslynn is doing a great job. She's really come a long way in a short amount of time," Shephard said. "She's got a real nice level of difficulty, and she's improving her execution. I'm very happy with the way she's progressing."

The other sophomore, Borkan, has had a few more problems than one would expect a college sophomore. During her freshman campaign, Borkan was showing all the signs of gymnastics excellence, competing in the all around. Then, in a meet against Ohio State, she tore her Achilles Tendon and broke her ankle.

"It was going really well. I competed in every meet and just like that it was gone," Borkan said.

After taking the rest of the season and the summer off to rehabilitate, she came back this fall with a vision to get herself back into the spotlight. However, about two months ago, Borkan came down with a stress fracture in her shin, forcing her comeback into the future as she began to build up strength. This time off has given her a new view of gymnastics -- the view of an outsider.

"Rehabbing and watching the girls was a brand new thing for me because I've always been in the action," Borkan said. "But it was nice to sit back and watch them and see how hard gymnastics really is, because it always came really easy to me. You just saw the fun, you didn't see the struggles. It made me grow a lot and be thankful that I have the opportunity to come back."

Borkan has come back this year, competing on the bars in the two home meets. Although her scores were not as high as last year, she is improving and will begin to perform in more events throughout the season.

"She's doing a lot more in vaulting and a lot more in beam. She's very close to being back in the vault lineup," Shephard said.

Two other important contributors, Perrett and Diehl, are both freshman and are definitely showing promise. Perrett has been competing on vault, bars and beam and her scores have been used in every meet.

This past Saturday, in the meet against Minnesota, Perrett claimed her first event title on the uneven bars, with a score of 9.775. Her career high came a week earlier at home, where she posted a 9.85.

"That was my first college No. 1 bar routine. It felt awesome. It was very cool," Perrett said, smiling and laughing like it was her birthday. "Although the scoring was lower than it should have been, it was still awesome to win."

The score was lower, in part, because the judges did not recognize her release move.

"The judges actually did not give her credit for her release move, which is an original release move, which she made up. It's called the Perrett," Shephard said. "It's supposed to be an E-level release move but they only gave her credit for a C because they didn't know what it was."

Perrett has also been dealing with bone chips in her ankle, which she had before she came to Penn State. They will be surgically dealt with during the offseason, but for now, she will have to continue performing through the pain. Her position on bars is also much more important after the departure of Kristal Uzelac, who was an all-around last year and one of the top uneven bar competitors.

Diehl is the only other freshman on the team. She walked on this year, and, although she is not competing in any meets, she is working hard in practice to be in contention for next year's lineup.

"I'm really working to improve my level of difficulty so that I can compete for the lineup next year," Diehl said. "I've really been trying to be supportive emotionally, physically, giving corrections, coaching and maintaining a positive attitude."

The future of this team is not far off, and these four girls are focused on the goal of being the best they can be, for themselves and for their team. There is only one place to go for them and that is up. It looks to be a bright future for these Lions.