BATON ROUGE — After three weeks at home the 12th-ranked LSU gymnastics hits the road, traveling to Lexington, Ky., for a dual meet with No. 24 Kentucky on Friday.
Competition is slated to begin at 6 p.m. (CT) from UK’s Memorial Coliseum.
Tiger fans who are unable to attend the meet can hear all the action live online at www.LSUsports.net as an audiocast of the competition will be available to all members of the website’s GeauxZone. Veteran sports announcer Lyn Rollins will handle the play-by-play duties, while former Tiger All-American Kelly Lea and Jewel Pollock will provide analysis.
The Tigers (5-4, 1-1 SEC) are coming off their two most successful outings of the season as they posted a season-high 196.500 in their defeat of Arkansas two weeks ago and were just off that pace with a 196.450 effort in a loss to two-time defending national champions, Georgia, last week.
“We have to continue to consistently improve on the things that we have been working on in the gym, stuck landings, handstands and competing with aggressiveness,” said LSU head coach D-D Breaux on what she is looking for from her team this weekend. “I think we have made great strides in the last two weeks, but now I am anxious to get on the road and see how we do in an unfriendly arena.”
Despite being an opposing arena, Memorial Coliseum has been kind to the Tigers in recent years. LSU has won 22 consecutive meets against the Wildcats, including five straight as the visiting team.
“We are looking at this as an opportunity to get a good road score and build towards the NCAA meet,” said Breaux. “We dug ourselves a whole early in the season and now we have to climb our way out if it. We started doing that in the last two meets, but a solid road score this weekend is the next step.”
The Tigers will have to take that next step against a Wildcat team that is ranked 24th nationally with a 193.694 team average this season. Kentucky (3-3, 0-3 SEC) is strongest on the vault and bars, events in which the Wildcats are currently ranked 19th and 20th, respectively, in the country.
LSU, who is ranked among the top 25 on each of the four individual events, will depend on a trio of steady all-arounders, in junior Ashleigh Clare-Kearney and seniors Kelly Phelan and Nicki Butler, to anchor the Tigers’ lineup.
Clare-Kearney and Phelan have both won an all-around title this season and have each posted scores of 39.350 or higher. Butler has recently hit her stride, turning in back-to-back 39.275 performances against Arkansas and Georgia.
Following the Kentucky meet, LSU remains on the road, traveling to No. 10 Auburn for a dual meet on Friday, Feb. 16.