The six senior members of the Penn State men's gymnastics team have never lost at home.

Their streak is in serious jeopardy this Saturday when No. 1 Michigan storms into Rec Hall for Saturday's double-dual meet at 7 p.m. The Lady Lions will take on Pittsburgh.

Not only are the Wolverines the sharpest team in the nation, scoring a season high 215.500 points last weekend, but they come to Happy Valley with motive.

The Nittany Lions squeaked out a win at last year's NCAA Championship by 0.125 points over Michigan.

"It's probably the biggest dual meet we have all year," senior Rob Saliski said. "They're going to come in here fired up."

Penn State beat Army last weekend, but had trouble on several routines. They have a dual-meet record of 1-1 and also beat seven teams at the West Point open. They are currently ranked sixth in the nation. Michigan beat Big Ten rivals No. 5 Illinois and No. 3 Ohio State in dual meets. They won the seven-team Windy City Invitational, too.

Michigan is the top-ranked team in the country on pommel horse, parallel bars and horizontal bar. They are second on floor exercise and vault. On the still rings they are ranked third. Penn State is not among the top three in any events.

Michigan is led by two Pennsylvania natives. Scott Vetere of Pennsburg is ranked first individually on the parallel bars and the high bar. Kevin Roulston of Lititz has the highest vault score in the country to date.

Jose Palacios is ranked first nationally on the pommel horse for Penn State and still ring specialist Chris Lakeman's 9.500 score on that event is the highest this year.

But the Lions are still recovering from health problems dating back as far as November. Team captain Dominic Brindle is still not at full strength after battling the flu and Jose Palacios has a bad back and knees. Several other competitors have been working through minor injuries all year.

Add to that the fact that the men got in the gym late and are not as sharp as they were at this point in the season last year. Tobias Ekman, who captured the all around title last week against Army said although he is only slightly behind in his training, such a discrepancy makes a big difference against a team like Michigan.

"At the moment we're not at the level where we can think about beating Michigan," Brindle said. "Not quite yet."

But head coach Randy Jepson doesn't see any dire need for a win this weekend.

"We can't really worry about Michigan," Jepson said. "It's about us going out and doing our job."

The gymnasts have been polishing routines and adding skills this week during practice in hopes of upping their scores. Jepson has talked all year about raising the bar each week.

"We want to see more concentration each week in practice," he said. "I tell the guys they will compete like they practice."

The Lions are a work in progress. Less experienced competitors like sophomore Kevin Donohue, currently ranked seventh in the nation in the all-around, have raised their levels of performance. Fellow sophomore Matt Abboud won the parallel bars against Army.

This weekend will be a measuring stick for Penn State. It will be a taste of what's to come, both at the Big Ten and NCAA Championships.

The home win streak may very well end, but that will mean little if the Lions can improve enough from meet to meet and repeat the magic of last year's run.

"Our goal is still to improve so that we're good enough when it counts," Jepson said.