BATON ROUGE — LSU gymnastics head coach D-D Breaux knew her eighth-ranked Tigers would have little margin for error in their 2001 home opener, as she stared across the floor at the No. 2-ranked Georgia GymDogs.
While the Tigers (1-1) were up to the task for two rotations, in the end there were far too many costly mistakes, as the GymDogs (6-0-1) walked away with a convincing 196.100-193.875 decision before 1,706 at the Maravich Assembly Center here tonight.
“We simply made too many mental mistakes, but we’re a young team, we have a lot of freshmen and they need to be thrown in the fire in a competition like this to learn,” said Breaux. “We have a lot of freshmen who learned that there is a thin line between the good teams and the great ones and they will benefit from this experience.”
The Tigers opened with an impressive 48.450 on vault, a tremendous improvement over their sub-48-point performance in Kentucky a week ago. Marina Degteva stepped up with a 9.825, while Adrienne Couret threw in a 9.75 to get the Tigers off to a solid start.
As the Tigers moved to bars, they were at their best on the evening. LSU was near flawless on bars, getting a 9.90 from Sharene Mamby who won the individual title in the event as the Tigers went 49.075. Degteva added a 9.825 while Beth Boudreaux came up with a 9.850 and the Tigers trailed by less than half a point after two rotations.
But as the beam rolled around, the Tigers began to implode. The Tigers started with falls in each of the first two positions and struggled to salvage a 47.975 on beam.
“The beam was definitely the turning point for us,” added Breaux. “We’re a young team and we’re going to make those kind of mistakes right now. You can’t count a fall and expect to beat a quality team like Georgia.”
The Tigers closed out with a respectable 48.375 on floor behind a victorious 9.90 performance from Nicki Arnstad. In the end, however, Georgia’s consistency overwhelmed the Tigers.
Kristi Lichey won the all-around title with a 39.375, while Arnstad finished second with a 39.050. Beth Boudreaux, competing in her first all-around, finished fourth with a 39.000.
Boudreaux was inserted into the vault line-up when All-American Shanyn MacEachern was scratched at the last minute. The Tigers also suffered from the loss of sophomore beam standout Rebecca Lightsey who injured her left knee during warm-ups. MacEachern was third in the all-around at the SEC Championships last year while Lightsey was third on beam on the conference meet.
The road ahead doesn’t get any easier for the Tigers, as No. 13 Denver comes to Baton Rouge next Friday followed by a road trip at No. 5 Alabama on Feb. 2.