Although Senior Night is usually filled with plenty of tears, memories and customized blankets, the seniors on the Penn State women's gymnastics team aren't going to let it affect their performances in the final home meet.

After scoring the highest score since 2001 last weekend in Arizona, the seniors and their No. 13 team are looking to continue to keep their intensity high and emotions low to pull out another win. Penn State will play host to Rutgers, Yale and New Hampshire at 7 tomorrow night in Rec Hall. With Big Tens a week away, Penn State coach Steve Shephard hopes to keep the women motivated and focused throughout the meet and then let them celebrate at the conclusion.

"This meet is going to be emotional for the seniors but we need to make sure that they aren't distracted by that and to stay composed and calm and have a great last experience," Shephard said. "The main focus this meet is to hit our routines and get a good qualifying score. If we hit and do really well, we should be able to beat all three teams."

At the end of the meet, the seniors will have a blanketing ceremony where each senior is joined by her parents and presented a customized Penn State women's gymnastics' blanket. Along with the announcer reading a short paragraph about each senior, Shephard mentioned that there will also be a surprise. Senior uneven bars specialist Amie Olaes said she has no idea what the surprise will be, but she won't let that or Senior Night itself take her focus away.

"This senior meet will be more uplifting just because this is our last major home meet and everyone just wants to do really well," Olaes said. "I want to make sure I make all my handstands and stick my dismount, be happy with my performance and take it all in."

Last weekend, Olaes scored a career-high in the bars with a 9.850 and has been consistent for most of the season. She has scored a 9.725 or better eight times, peaking into the 9.800s half of them. Since she has only stuck her landing once all season, she is looking to perfect her dismount for the remainder of the championship season.

Senior Ashley Mehrer isn't going to let the nostalgic Senior Night make her focus cloudy either. After making her return in the beam last weekend with a score of 9.850, Mehrer's morale got a boost.

"Since I have now only done beam twice this year, I just really want to hit the beam this week," Mehrer said. "I don't think the emotions are going to affect us much because even though this is our last home meet, we still get to come back. It's not the end, but it's in sight."

The seniors still have Big Tens, which will be held a week from Saturday in Rec Hall. Although Shephard is confident about Big Tens and this Saturday's quad meet, he feels that his team still hasn't hit its potential yet.

"In Arizona we didn't even have a perfect meet. I know that they are capable of doing it, they just need to do it when it counts," Shephard said.