This upcoming Friday the women’s gymnastics team will take on rival and conference foe No. 5 U-M in front of a crowd of former Spartan gymnasts for Alumni Night.

“What we do is we invite the alumni all back we line them up on the floor and we find out a little bit about what’s going on in their lives and what’s happening,” head coach Kathie Klages said. “Often we’ll do a dinner or we may have a little open gym ... (this year) we have them being introduced at the meet and then we have five (alumni) handing out awards for us.

“We’re going to have to be darn-near perfect (to beat Michigan). The exciting thing for us is there’s a possibility depending on how the week works out that we may get Alina Cartwright back in an event,” Klages said.

Senior Alina Cartwright, despite missing most of the season, is excited for the meet Friday and she is currently day-to-day and may be able to compete sparingly.

“It should be really exciting because it’s our second home meet and this team, this year is very consistent an probably doing the best that I’ve seen in the four years that I’ve been here and U-M is a really good team,” Cartwright said.

Cartwright is looking forward to see the alumni get their recognition and it paints a picture into what the future has in store for the senior.

“It’s exciting to see all of the old team members come back and get recognized ... it’s cool because they’re older and they have their children with them and hopefully one day we get to do that,” Cartwright said.

Sophomore Elena Lagoski wants to show the alumni how far the program has come in their absence and that it still has room to grow.

“It would be cool to show them how much the program has grown and how well it’s doing,” Lagoski said. “Hopefully they’ll love watching it and hopefully they think it has gotten better over the years.”

Cartwright is 0-3 in head-to-head meets against the Wolverines in her career as a Spartan and to earn a win over the gymnastics powerhouse, especially on Alumni Night, would be special to her and the team.

"(Getting a win in front of the alumni) honestly would probably be massive, I don’t even know how to explain a win over Michigan in front of the alumni it would actually probably be magical.”

Klages loves to see her former gymnasts come back and see the team and said that Alumni Night is one of the best of the year.

“I think it’s really exciting because (the alumni) set the ground-work for this program and have done so much to help this program succeed,” Klages said. “I find it to be one of my favorite nights of the year because you get to see so many people and you get to find out what’s going on in their lives. It’s a really special night for everyone involved.”