BATON ROUGE — LSU’s 11th-ranked gymnastics team returns to the Pete Maravich Assembly Center Friday night when it hosts fifth-ranked Oklahoma in a dual meet at 7 p.m.
Tickets for the meet are still available and can be purchased online at www.LSUsports.net, over the phone by calling (225) 578-2184 or in person at the LSU Ticket Office. The cost is $5 for adults and $3 for children ages 3-12.
The Tigers (8-5, 2-2 SEC) are coming off a season-best 196.550 performance against Auburn last week, a meet that saw them post season-highs on both the vault and beam and claim each of the meet’s five individual honors.
“I feel like we are getting better each week,” said LSU head coach D-D Breaux. “We are getting some great individual performances from our seniors and juniors Kelly Phelan and Lisa Rennie, but it boils down to the fact that this is a complete team effort and that’s what we’ve been missing.”
The Tigers will once again look to all-arounders April Burkholder and Kelly Phelan as well as three event standouts Emily Ellis and Terin Martinjak to anchor the lineup.
A trio of freshman, in Lauren Klein, Christina Suhr and Vanessa Rodriguez, are also expected to pepper Friday’s lineup as Breaux continues to seek the team’s most consistent and solid set of performers.
The Sooners enter the meet with a deceiving 4-6 overall mark as they are ranked fifth nationally with a regional qualifying score of 195.965 despite their losing record. They match LSU’s best this season, having also scored a 196.550, but are averaging a 195.175 on the year.
Oklahoma has been led by a pair of top 20 all-around performers in Brittney Koncak-Schumann and Haley DeProspero. Koncak-Schumann is ranked sixth nationally with a RQS of 39.140, while DeProspero is listed at No. 17 with a RQS of 39.010.
LSU enters the meet with a 6-2-0 all-time series advantage over Oklahoma, including a 1-0-0 mark in Baton Rouge. The two teams met three times during the 2005 season with LSU coming out on top on each of those three occasions.
Following the Oklahoma meet, the tigers will have just one day’s rest before returning to action against Centenary on Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Gold Dome.