When the Illinois women’s gymnastics team takes the floor at 4 p.m. Saturday at Huff Hall, it will compete for more than just a win against Michigan State.

While hoisting the Victory Plank — the only rivalry trophy head coach Kim Landrus said the Illini will compete for this season — is still a major goal for this weekend’s competition, the significance of honoring those lost to breast cancer through their annual Pink Meet is bigger to the Illini then what’s in their trophy case.

“The meet is for breast cancer awareness,” Landrus said. “And it’s very near to our heart. We lost one in our Illini family over the summer, so this meet is a chance to recognize all those who have battled through breast cancer and those who we have lost.”

Illinois will compete in a sea of pink, as everyone attending the meet is encouraged to wear pink in support.

Up for grabs this weekend is the Victory Plank, a rivalry trophy that was shared last year, when Illinois and Michigan State tied. Before last season, the trophy had been won outright by the Illini in each of its first two years of its existence.

“We always have the motivation to go out there and win,” junior all-arounder Elizabeth McNabb said. “But the Plank is really great because it’s an added challenge for the meet and another thing to look forward to.”

To take home the Plank for a third time in four years, Illinois will take on one of its biggest rivals this weekend. The Spartans, like the Illini, got off to a slow start this season with three straight losses to Michigan, Western Michigan and Nebraska.

The Illini stumbled in their first meet as well, a quad meet in which they finished third with a score of 193.750, but performed better in their loss to Michigan, where they scored 195.100 and had improved performances on both bars and beam.

“The team is looking really good,” Landrus said. “We have taken what we learned at our meet at Michigan and come in here and continued to work on all the little things like the handstands, the sticking, the amplitude and the execution to continue to improve upon what we did last week and the week before that.”

Illinois will be looking to hit a team-high score for the season, around 196 points, against Michigan State, said senior Alina Weinstein, who added that her personal goal for the meet is to hit on all four of her events and help contribute to the teams goal.

“We have to continue consistency on all the events,” Landrus said. “Last week at Michigan, we improved on three out of our four events, but I think we can go out there and hit 24-for-24 and be aggressive in our gymnastics and really attack our routines. And if we do that, we’ll be very happy.”

Nicholas can be reached at [email protected] and @IlliniSportsGuy.