Jan. 27, 2007

DeKALB, Ill. - The Northern Illinois women's gymnastics team, 2-0 on the young season, open Mid-American Conference competition Sunday with a 2 p.m. match-up versus Bowling Green in the NIU Convocation Center.

Tickets for the event, which will be held in the main seating area of the Convo, are $5 for adults and $3 for youth (under 18) while NIU students are free with ID. Tickets can be purchased at the door beginning one hour before the meet.

After dominating non-conference foes Wisconsin-Stout and M.I.T. in its opening meet two weeks ago, Northern Illinois has spent the last two weeks refining its routines and training for the league season.

"It's always exciting to get the MAC competition off to a start," said NIU Head Coach Mark Sontag. "The intra-conference rivalry adds a lot of excitement to our meets. The team is always focused on doing what we need to do to win, but when a MAC school comes in we want to win that much more."

NIU sophomore Leah Johnson (Glenview, Ill.) claimed the all-around title with a score of 38.150, and won the vault and balance beam competitions in the season opener, while freshman Natalie Blum tied Johnson for vault honors and claimed the floor exercise title with a 9.775, however, the freshman from Homer Glen suffered an injury in practice and will not be available Sunday. The Huskies will welcome back junior Jennifer Rice (Homewood, Ill.) on beam and see more contributions from a stronger Rachel Adams (Fruitport, Mich.).

"We got some people back, but we have some other bumps and bruises so we won't be at full strength yet," Sontag said. "It should be a pretty even match up and either team will have to hit their routines to win."

Sontag said that at this early stage of the season, the Huskies are still developing their routines after adding significant difficulty up and down the line-up this year.

"We've upgraded a lot of our skills this year across the board," Sontag said. "We don't want to play it safe, the only way to win big is to go for it, and we're focused on our goals."

Bowling Green comes into the meet 2-1 overall and is 1-1 in MAC competition. The Falcons defeated Western Michigan, 189.300-189.075, last week.

Following the Bowling Green meet, NIU goes on the road for the first time this season to take on Iowa, Winona State and Wisconsin-Whitewater in a Quad Meet in Iowa City, Iowa.

-- NIU --