BATON ROUGE — The seventh-ranked LSU gymnastics team will host a top-five opponent in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center for the third time this season as it closes out the 2007 home schedule on Friday against No. 5 Nebraska at 7 p.m.
The meet will serve also as Senior Night for All-Americans Kelly Phelan and Lisa Rennie and All-SEC selection Nicki Butler. The trio will be honored at the conclusion of the competition.
“We are excited about a team like Nebraska coming in for our final home meet of the season,” said LSU head coach D-D Breaux. “They are a team I feel we match up very well against and I expect that it will be a fight to the finish.”
The Tigers (8-6) have been on a hot streak as of late, posting scores of 196.875 or better in each of their last three outings. They will need a comparable performance to come out on top against a talented Nebraska team that jumped from No. 8 to No. 5 in the national rankings this week.
“I don’t think them (Nebraska) moving up and us moving down is a reflection of where we are,” said Breaux. “I think we still have room to improve and will continue to do so.
“We have established ourselves as a team with high scoring potential, but we will likely make a few slight changes in the lineup this week that will give us an even higher scoring potential,” added Breaux.
Breaux would like to see sophomore Lauren Klein crack the beam lineup and Phelan get back into the bars rotation.
Klein competed in exhibition on the beam last week against Penn State and scored a 9.925, a mark that would have won the meet title.
Phelan, who has been a mainstay in the all-around this season, sat out of bars last week, but is looking to return Friday night if she can improve the difficulty in her dismount.
LSU will also continue to lean on the services of junior Ashleigh Clare-Kearney and senior Nicki Butler. The pair, which along with Phelan, are ranked among the NCAA’s top 15 in the all-around, finished 1-2 against PSU as both posted career highs of 39.675 and 39.525, respectively.
Nebraska will counter with all-arounders Desire’ Sniatynski and Kylie Stone, who are ranked No. 20 and No. 22, respectively. The Huskers also bring junior All-American Emily Parsons to the table. She is the country’s top-ranked floor worker as well as the nation’s No. 2 competitor on the vault as sits behind only Clare-Kearney in the rankings.
As a team, the Huskers are 15-3 on the season and coming off a 196.500-195.450 win over Iowa State. Ranked among the top 10 in the country on each of the four individual events, Nebraska is averaging a 196.075 on the year and has posted a top mark of 196.975.
The Huskers led the all-time series with the Tigers by a slim 10-9-1 margin. However, LSU holds a 3-1-1 advantage in Baton Rouge.
This will be the second meeting of the season for the two teams as they first went head-to-head at the season-opening Super Six Challenge. Nebraska won that match-up, 195.200-194.075.
Following the Nebraska meet, LSU will close out its regular season dual meet schedule when it travels to Shreveport for a meet with in-state foe Centenary on Friday, March 23.