BATON ROUGE — LSU’s gymnastics team looks to get back on track Friday when it welcomes No. 2 Alabama to the Pete Maravich Assembly Center for the home opener, beginning at 7 p.m.
LSU (2-2, 0-1 SEC) is coming off last week’s disappointing, 197.100-195.300, loss to third-ranked Florida.
“We are looking for consistency. We need to find a lineup that can hit and do it under pressure,” said LSU head coach D-D Breaux. “The last two weeks we have had some sterling performances, but then we seem to self-destruct. We can’t afford to do that. We don’t have anymore meets that ‘don’t count’.”
Despite recent setbacks, the Tigers still turned in some impressive performances against the Gators, recording season-high team totals on both the vault (49.150) and floor (49.150), two events in which they are ranked among the top-20 nationally.
Individually, LSU has been led by sophomore all-arounder April Burkholder. Burkholder has finished second in the all-around in each of the Tigers first two meets and is undefeated on the vault this season, having won titles at both Michigan State (9.950) and Florida (9.925).
Alabama will put its perfect 6-0 record on the line when it opens its SEC slate against the Tigers. The Crimson Tide, who won the highly competitive Super Six Challenge to open the season, turned in a season-best 197.125 to defeat Penn State last Friday.
Friday night’s battle should be a close one as Alabama holds just a slim 10-9-2 advantage over LSU in the PMAC, but has not won in Baton Rouge since the 1998 season.
Following the Alabama meet, LSU will take a break from SEC action as it hosts in-state foe, Centenary, and defending USAG national champion, Texas Woman’s, in a tri-meet Fri., Jan. 30, at the PMAC. The meet will begin at 7 p.m.