BATON ROUGE — The ninth-ranked LSU gymnastics team will compete in its final regular season home meet on Friday night as Rhode Island and Centenary come to the Maravich Assembly Center for a 7 p.m. tilt.
The significance heightens further for the Tigers on Friday, as it will be their final tune-up before the SEC Championships in Birmingham on March 23.
“We’re looking to set the tone for the following week with a strong showing before the SEC Championships,” said LSU head coach D-D Breaux. “We’re going to try and go out, hit four clean rotations and get some momentum before heading to Birmingham next week.”
The Tigers have been red hot as of late and have scored better than 196.000 in five of their last six meets, including a school record showing of 197.500 against Kentucky in their last home outing. The Tigers are coming off a tough loss at top-ranked Georgia last weekend in which they scored a season high road total of 196.675, their highest total away from Baton Rouge since 2000.
With a pair of victories on Friday night, LSU can cap their second perfect regular season home record in three years as they enter with a 5-0 mark including victories over then-No. 1 Utah and then-No. 4 Alabama.
Friday’s meet will be senior night at LSU when six highly successful seniors will be recognized in a pre-meet ceremony. LSU will honor All-Americans Nicki Arnstad, Beth Boudreaux and Shanyn MacEachern, co-captain Marina Degteva, former captain Sharene Mamby and academic team captain Adrienne Couret.
LSU owns a significant advantage in the series with each competitor on Friday night with a combined 20-1 mark against the two schools. LSU is 16-1 against Centenary and 4-0 against Rhode Island.
LSU defeated Centenary last year during the regular season while picking up a win against Rhode Island in postseason competition in Ann Arbor, Mich., last year at the NCAA Northeast Regional.
Following the Tigers’ tri-meet with Rhode Island and Centenary, they will head to Birmingham for the SEC Championships next Saturday. The Tigers finished fourth a year ago and are in search of their first title since 1981.
The Tigers will then take the following weekend off before returning home for the NCAA Central Regional at the Maravich Assembly Center on April 6.
Tickets are already on sale and available by calling the LSU ticket office at (225) 578-2184. Ticket prices are $6 for adults and $4 for youths (ages 3-12) and students with a college ID card.