Fans at Huff Hall will see something a little out of the norm Sunday afternoon. The Illini women’s gymnastics team will host a tri-meet against in-state rival Northern Illinois and the Japan All-Stars.

The Japan All-Stars are a group of eight top-level college gymnasts from Japan who are on a current tour of the U.S.

“It will add a little international flavor to the meet,” said head coach Bob Starkell. “We get to see the differences in the style of training and competing, and it will be exciting to have the opportunity to face a team that we’ve never seen before.”

Northern Illinois comes into the meet off a loss to Kent State, even after posting its highest team score of the season, and will have some added incentive facing its in-state rival.

“The strongest characteristic of Northern Illinois is their fighting attitude, especially coming down to a big campus like Champaign,” Starkell said. “They might not be as talented as some of the large D-1 programs, but they make up for that with hard work and we expect nothing but a hard fought battle from them.”

The Illini are carrying a lot of momentum into this week after finishing off their road trip with two straight victories, against Michigan State and in a quad meet in Denton, Texas.

Sophomore Cara Pomeroy won both bars and beam last week in Texas, and that performance earned her Co-Big Ten gymnast of the Week honors. It’s her first, and the first for an Illini since Jan. 2002 when senior Ashley Williams won it.

“Our stars lately, especially (Pomeroy) have been hitting at a high level,” Starkell said. “The object is to maintain them at that high level and hopefully carry it through the end of the season.”

Senior Lauren Newcomb tied for first in vault and won her second-straight vault title. The team also set a new school record for team score on vault.

“We’re still looking to improve each week, and hopefully we’ll make less mistakes than we did last week,” Starkell said. “Even though the mistakes didn’t greatly hurt us, we feel we can correct those this weekend.”

The crowd will be a little more boisterous than usual, thanks to the presence of alums of the women’s gymnastics program, who will be returning to watch the meet as part of alumni weekend.

“The wins pick up everyone in the gym, picks up practice, and fires up everyone for practice,” said senior co-captain Kara Kapernekas. “We’re very excited about being back, especially this weekend with the alums, and next weekend being the last senior meet, it’s really exciting to be at home right now.”