Jan. 11, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The 19th-ranked Penn State women's gymnastics team will enter its second weekend of action on Saturday as it travels to the University of Illinois-Chicago for a 6 p.m. ET meet. The Nittany Lions are coming off a second place finish in their season opening tri-meet at Denver last weekend.
"I felt like we got off to a great start at Denver last weekend," said head coach Jeff Thompson. "We struggled on two events but we were outstanding on two events. We finished the meet very strong. This week we've been working on improving. We will shift some lineups around and we are going to give some others an opportunity. It's going to be fun to get out there and compete and not put pressure on ourselves like we did last weekend."
Senior Sharaya Musser (Colorado Springs, Colo.) posted the top all-around score in the entire meet at Denver, earning a mark of 39.300. Sophomore Lexi Carroll (Olney, Md.) also competed in the all-around, and earned the third best mark with a score of 38.525. Freshman Samantha Musto (Mays Landing, N.J.) made her collegiate debut and posted a 38.350 all-around score, good for fourth overall. Musto earned Big Ten Freshman of the Week for her efforts. Musser's all-around score was seventh best in the country last weekend.
This will be the second ever meet between the two schools, last facing each other back in 2002 in a quad meet at the University of Florida. In that meet, the Lions posted a score of 195.325. Florida finished first (196.900) followed by Stanford (195.700) and Illinois-Chicago finished fourth (194.175). The Lions posted scores 48.500 on bars, 48.700 on beam and 48.950 on floor, and a season high 49.175 on vault.
This will be the first competition of the 2012 season for the Flames. UIC concluded its 2012 season with a post-season NCAA Regional berth. The team traveled to Champaign, Ill., to compete inside Assembly Hall - home of the Fighting Illini - for its ninth NCAA Regional appearance. The Flames placed sixth (194.150).
Penn State will open its home slate next weekend in a quad meet, as it hosts Minnesota, Kent State and Towson at Rec Hall beginning at 7 p.m.
The Penn State women's gymnastics team is on Twitter. Follow @PennStateWGYM for the inside scoop. You can also find updates on the Nittany Lion gymnasts at GoPSUsports.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pennstatewomensgymnastics.