BATON ROUGE — The LSU gymnastics team will open its 2001 season on Friday night at 6 p.m., when the eighth-ranked Tigers head to Memorial Coliseum in Lexington to take on the University of Kentucky.
The Tigers will take on a completely new look in 2001 after graduating a highly successful senior class of seven athletes that helped the Tigers to a ninth place finish at the NCAA Championships a year ago. Nine athletes return from last year?s squad, while eight newcomers join the mix.
“We’re a very young team right now and it will take some time to come together,” said LSU head coach D-D Breaux who begins her 24th season with the Tigers. “Kentucky is the first step in the process. Anytime you open the season with an SEC opponent you know you’ll have your hands full and we’ve got to be able to put it together Friday night.”
The Tigers own a decisive advantage in the all-time series, holding a 40-3 lifetime lead, including 10 straight victories in the series. LSU took a convincing 194.625-192.250 decision in the 2000 home opener at the PMAC a year ago, while also defeating Kentucky at the SEC Championships where the Tigers placed second and the GymKats finished fifth.
The GymKats will be a much improved squad over last year’s 5-14 team, however, led by SEC Freshman of the Year Julia Gore.
“Kentucky is a tough assignment for us out of the gates,” added Breaux. “Especially having to go into their arena with a number of athletes who haven’t been in that kind of competitive environment before.”
Breaux will have to count heavily on her returnees, led by All-Americans Beth Boudreaux and Shanyn MacEachern. Boudreaux, a native of Dutchtown, La., earned All-American honors on beam a year ago, while MacEachern is a two-time All-American on vault.
Junior co-captains Marina Degteva and Sharene Mamby will play a critical role on this year’s squad, particularly in the early stages of the season while the team is in its developmental stage. Degteva is a three-event specialist who will be counted on heavily, while Mamby makes her return to the Tigers’ lineup after missing the 2000 season with an Achilles’ injury.
The Tigers will be going for their third consecutive season-opening victory. It is only the sixth time in school history that the Tigers have begun the season with a conference match-up.
The road ahead doesn’t get any easier for LSU in the foreseeable future.
The Tigers return home on Jan. 19 at 7 p.m. for their home opener against No. 2 Georgia in a meet to be televised by ESPN on a tape-delayed basis.
The following week the Tigers host No. 13 Denver before travelling to No. 5 Alabama on Feb. 2.