Justin Howell and Elizabeth Crandall have a rule.

"We'll come home and talk about gymnastics, then shut it down," said Howell, Cal's head women's gymnastics coach.

Howell and Crandall are married, and Crandall is Howell's assistant coach.

"Our chemistry as coaches is great," Howell said. "We eat, sleep and breathe gymnastics. We don't bring work home all the time, but it's nice that we can talk about it over coffee in the morning."

Howell and Crandall have been busy coaching one of Cal's best teams in recent years. The Bears have spent most of the season in the top-25 and are poised to qualify for the NCAA regionals for the first time since 2007.

The Bears will need to have one of the top 36 regional qualifying scores at the end of the season to advance into the postseason. Cal currently sits at No. 35.

"I feel great about it," Howell said. "I'd like to feel a little more solid, but with the way this team is performing, there's no reason why we can't get back up there a little bit."

Cal will next be in action Friday night for a three-way meet at No. 12 Stanford, along with No. 9 Oregon State.

The regional qualifying score (RPS) is determined by taking a team's top-six all-around scores during the season, dropping the highest score, and then averaging the rest. Howell said the Bears' RPS has been driven down by one subpar meet at Utah.

"We're ready to get rid of that score," Howell said. "We want to kick it out of our average so we can get back in the top-25. Hopefully we'll do it this weekend."

If the Bears qualify for the NCAA regionals, they would have to finish in the top-2 there to advance to the NCAA championships.

Cal is led by junior Alicia Asturias and Mariesah Pierce, the team's top all-around performers. Freshman Serena Leong has also excelled on the vault, balance beam and floor exercise.

"We had an uncharacteristically bad meet at Utah," Howell said. "But there's no reason we shouldn't be able to drop that score. That would be a huge leap for us."