Feb. 14, 2014
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; February 14, 2014 - After tying their season-high last weekend against No. 8 Nebraska, the No. 21 Penn State women's gymnastics program will host No. 15 Illinois on Saturday, Feb. 15 in their annual Flip for the Cure meet at Rec Hall.
Saturday's double dual with Illinois will mark the 2014 Flip for a Cure meet, benefitting Pink Zone. The 2014 t-shirt will be available for purchase at the entrance to Rec Hall, with all fans buying or wearing their 2014 Flip for the Cure t-shirt garnering free admission to the meet on Feb. 15. Fans can also purchase a t-shirts on the west concourse of Rec Hall during the meet and cost $15. The men's and women's squads will be wearing pink during the meet to show their support for breast cancer awareness.
As a team, Penn State currently 21st in team scoring average at 195.175, along with being among the nation's best on the vault, uneven bars and floor exercise. Penn State is currently 24th with a season average of 48.900 on the vault, sit 24th with a team scoring average of 48.825 on the uneven bars and are scoring 49.118 on the floor exercise to rank 13th nationally.
Illinois enters the meet with a team scoring average of 195.780, which ranks 15th in the NCAA, and are among the NCAA's best on the uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. They rank 11th on the balance beam (48.980), 14th on the floor exercise (49.060) and 16th on the uneven bars (48.800).
Last weekend against Nebraska the Blue and White tied their season high team score for the second straight weekend with a mark of 196.150. They logged a season-best score of 49.150 on the vault and added season-high effort of 49.025 on the balance beam.
Kassidy Stauder (Palmerton, Pa.) continued her strong season by placing third in the all-around and tying for the event titles on the uneven bars and balance beam. The senior has now won or tied for the event title on the uneven bars and balance beam in four straight meets. Stauder set career-bests on both events, scoring 9.900 on the uneven bars and 9.925 on the balance beam, while compiling a career-high all-around score of 39.350 to finish third overall.
On the vault, Freshman Emma Sibson (Allen, Texas) tied for the event title and moved her name into the Penn State record books with a new career-best effort of 9.950 on the event. Sibson now has three scores of 9.825 or better this season and has not scored lower than 9.725 on the event all year. She has also competed on the balance beam and floor exercise in each of the last three meets.
Another rookie that is rounding into form is Nicole Medvitz (Paramus, N.J.), who posted her best score of the season on the balance beam at 9.825 vs. Nebraska.
Junior Krystal Welsh reached 39.000 in the all-around for the second straight meet with a score of 39.175 vs. Nebraska, which included a career-best vault of 9.875 to open the meet. The junior now has career-high performances on the floor exercise and vault, along with the all-around this season.
Senior Amber See has led the Illini this season and is averaging 39.150 in the all-around this season. She tops the team's all-around charts and is the top scorer on the vault at 9.840. Freshman Erin Buchanan leads the team on floor exercise (9.865), senior Sarah Fiedler is top on the uneven bars (9.800) and junior Sunny Kato leads the team on balance beam (9.860).
The Nittany Lions will hit the road for three of their next four meets before the championship portion of their schedule begins. Penn State travels to future Big Ten foe Rutgers for a quad meet on Feb. 22 with the Scarlet Knights, Temple and Ursinus. The team will return home the next weekend for their Senior Day meet against Bridgeport, Western Michigan and Yale on Friday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m.
For information on purchasing 2014 season tickets or Big Ten and NCAA Regional Championship tickets fans can visit http://www.gopsusports.com/tickets/w-gym-tickets.html or call 1-800-NITTANY weekdays from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
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