LSU gymnastics coach D-D Breaux didn’t mince words Friday night after her team’s tight 197.050-196.825 victory against No. 7 Georgia went down to the final rotation.
“We’ve got to have five or six people hit solid on beam,” Breaux said. “Georgia almost beat us tonight because they came in here tonight and they did great on beam and they had been missing on beam. We need to fix the beam issue.”
The win is the first time the Tigers have topped the 197-point benchmark at home this season, but Breaux said she believes the outcome would have been different if LSU ended its night with beam instead of floor like it would in a road meet.
“I use the term ‘blood in the water,’” Breaux said. “The same thing happened to us at Auburn. We did tentative beam at Auburn and it cost us the meet. … This team is learning how to win. They’re learning how to stick the sword in, but we just have to be a more tenacious beam team.”
Fortunately for the Tigers, their dominating performance on floor — where they rank No. 1 in the country — culminated in a 9.950 for sophomore Lloimincia Hall and salvaged their less-than-stellar performance on beam.
The underlying storyline of the night was the last minute lineup changes Breaux made throughout the meet.
“[The team is] used to Ericka [Garcia] going first, and Ericka was awful in the warm-ups so I had no choice but to pull her out,” Breaux said. “And obviously Britney Ranzy is not mentally ready yet on beam. We’re just going to have to go back into the gym and practice.”
The most notable change in the night came in the decision to hold Morrison out of vault competition despite Breaux saying the injury-plagued gymnast would compete in the home meet.
Coaches made the decision a few weeks ago that Morrison would not compete in any road meet for the rest of the season until post-season play in an attempt to rest her injury-prone ankle.
“[The decision] was made yesterday,” Morrison said. “We’re trying to hold me out for SECs, regionals and nationals. I trust the coaches with their decisions, and it was a good decision tonight. The vault team hit tonight and I was just happy to get to do the [uneven] bars.”
Morrison said she hopes to be able to compete in the vault next week against No. 4 Alabama.
Morrison and freshman Randii Wyrick became the first gymnasts this season to defeat top-ranked Georgia gymnast sophomore Chelsea Davis on bars, both scoring a 9.925.
Sophomore Rheagan Courville earned her 10th all-around title this season, scoring a 39.450 — almost a full tenth of a point higher than her season average that has propelled her to the No. 3 all-arounder in the country.
But like many other aspects of her team’s night, Breaux wasn’t completely satisfied with her star gymnast’s performance.
“I think Rheagan is capable of so much more than we saw of her tonight,” Breaux said. “My expectations for Rheagan are way beyond what she’s winning with right now. To win a national title and to take this team to the next level we need her to be great, and right now she’s good.”
