March 3, 2007

DeKALB, Ill. - After three straight road outings, the Northern Illinois women's gymnastics team returns to friendly territory Sunday when they play host to Mid-American Conference foe Eastern Michigan. The dual meet, which will mark Senior Day for six NIU gymnasts, begins at 1 p.m. at Victor E. Court in the NIU Convocation Center, preceding Northern Illinois' men's basketball game against EMU at 2 p.m.

Tickets for Sunday's meet are available at the door beginning at Noon for $5 for adults and $3 for youth (under 18). NIU students are free with ID.

Most recently, Northern Illinois completed its toughest stretch of the season with back-to-back-to-back road meets, during which they faced a pair of Top 10 ranked teams in No. 9 Denver and No. 10 Iowa State, as well as No. 24 Illinois and MAC opponent Ball State.

The Huskies return to DeKalb looking for their first MAC dual meet victory of the season with a 4-7 overall record and a 0-3 league mark. During the meet, NIU will honor current seniors Amy Ristvedt, Jody Yednock, Kelly Kramer, Brittany Swantek and Meghan Cronin, along with Bethany Plapp, who was not able to compete in her senior season due to academic obligations.

"This is a great class of seniors who really make up the heart of this team," said NIU Head Coach Mark Sontag. "It's fun to see one of the first classes that I recruited here finish their careers, although it's always tough to say goodbye. The leadership that these five seniors bring has a big impact on the character of this team."

Sontag, whose club has been beset by injuries necessitating almost weekly changes in the line-up, hopes to get sophomore all-arounder Leah Johnson back after she missed the Huskies' Tri-Meet with Illinois and Iowa State due to injury. Sontag said that one advantage of the revolving line-up has been the opportunity to build depth.

"We're missing some people in our line-up, but also have some people starting to move in," Sontag said. "Last week we saw Ashley Hurley on floor and Ashton Flora on beam, for example. It's been a revolving door with our line-up, but it will make us stronger and deeper in the long run."

Johnson has NIU's top vault (9.850) and all-around (38.900) marks this year while fellow sophomore Jennifer Naughton has claimed the team's best showings on the beam (9.875) and floor exercise (9.800) while tying Johnson's best on the vault. Yednock leads the Huskies on the uneven parallel bars with a 9.850.

Northern Illinois recorded its top team score of 193.525 versus No. 9 Denver in Denver and Sontag is looking for his team to put it all together now that the Huskies are back home.

"It will be nice to be home," Sontag said. "We had a good meet the last time we were at home, so it will be a comfortable venue in VEC for us. We could put it together anytime. We have just been trading off on events - on any given day, any event can be awesome. Denver was pretty close. It would be nice to put it together and get it set up for this last part of the season going into the championships."

NIU will actually compete once more at home this season, as the Huskies will play host to the State of Illinois Championships on March 25 at the Convocation Center. Following the EMU meet, Northern Illinois will meet Western Michigan and Central Michigan in road dual meets.

-- NIU --