This weekend, it's going to take more than just a good performance to win the East Coast Athletic Conference championship -- according to Penn gymnastics coach Tom Kovic, it's going to take a "perfect" meet.
"We have yet to put together a complete performance where we've hit 24 of 24 routines," he said. "We've had really good meets but we haven't had any perfect meets."
Sophomore Leah Moon, a recent Academic All-Ivy selection, believes that this flawless meet is possible.
"Things have been looking good this week," Moon said. "It's about time we hit all our routines."
Penn currently sits in fifth place in the ECACs, with a Regional Qualifying Score of 189.175. The RQS is determined by taking a team's top six scores on the year, dropping the highest, and averaging the remaining five.
The two teams to beat are William & Mary and Yale, ranked first and second in the conference, respectively.
Looking for its third straight ECAC title, William & Mary leads the conference in RQS, with a 193.175.
The Tribe lead the conference in RQS on three of the four events -- floor, uneven bars, and beam.
This will be the first time the Quakers take on William & Mary this season.
Yale has two big advantages this weekend -- home field and a high RQS of 191.850 -- making them the favorites to upset the Tribe.
The Ivy Classic champion Elis boast the second ranked floor and bars squads, the third best vaulting team, and No. 4 beam team in the conference.
The Quakers eagerly look forward to facing Yale for their third time this year, as they have fallen to their Ancient Eight rivals by miniscule margins the previous two times.
The Elis defeated Penn in Philadelphia, 189.45-188.25, on Jan. 25 and then again at the Ivy Classic, 192.3-192.0.
"Yale is our biggest rival," junior Christy Green said. "Every time we see them we get really pumped."
Penn's best event, by standing, is vault, as they are currently ranked fourth in the ECAC with a RQS of 47.440. The Quakers boast the fifth-ranked beam (47.080) and bars (47.325) squads.
The Red and Blue will have to do better than their current seventh place ranking in the floor (47.690), if they hope to take home their first ECAC title since 1994.
Some may say that this is not Penn's year, as the team is too young -- boasting just two seniors -- to take home a conference crown, but Kovic dismisses this claim.
"At this point in the season, there is no such thing as youth," he said. "These girls have all had a baptism by fire."
Moon agrees with her coach, pointing out the maturity the team's rookies have shown.
"They're definitely not freshmen anymore," she said.
The Quakers have the individual talent needed to win this meet, as seven athletes have been recognized by the ECAC with weekly awards this season.
This week, sophomore Alexandra Chalat took home the ECAC's weekly Coaches Choice Award after turning in a new personal-record of 9.7 on the floor and a season-high 9.425 on bars against Temple on March 22.
Green was also honored by the ECAC as she was named Athlete of the Week after posting a 9.8 on the bars against Temple.
Penn will be holding nothing back tomorrow, as it is the team's final competition of the 2003 campaign.
"It's our last meet of the season," Green said. "So we're going to let it all go."
