The No. 5 LSU gymnastics team suffered its first loss of the season by a score of 196.575-195.525 at No. 6 Alabama on Friday night.
Four falls and a break in freshman all-around Jessica Savona’s balance beam routine would be too much for the Tigers (2-1, 1-1) to overcome, and coach D-D Breaux said she was disappointed with the high number of technical mistakes.
“We took ourselves out of the meet [after the first two falls],” Breaux said. “We were hoping Alabama would make a mistake. …When you’re up against a national champion, you had better compete like a champion.”
LSU started out on bars, where falls by freshman all-around Randii Wyrick and junior all-around Rheagan Courville put the Tigers in a hole. But junior all-around Sarie Morrison turned in a 9.925 score, which tied her career high on bars.
“I didn’t feel any of the pressure from the falls in front of me,” Morrison said. “…I just went ahead and hit my routine. I was confident about it and had a great warm up.”
Despite Morrison’s outstanding performance on bars, Alabama (2-0, 2-0) led 49.450-48.400, and the Tigers could not manage to close the one-point gap. LSU would win the second and third events, but only by a combined tenth of a point.
A fall from sophomore all-around Lloimincia Hall on vault marred an otherwise impressive team performance in the event, as no other gymnast scored lower than 9.850. The Tigers continued their dominance in the floor event with a 49.125, but the Crimson Tide still held a one-point advantage heading into the final rotation.
Junior all-around Kaleigh Dickson earned a devastating 9.000 because of a fall, and Savona turned in a 9.325 after receiving a starting value reduction because of a break in her leap series.
The Tigers will return to action against Georgia, Oklahoma, Oregon State and Washington next Saturday at the Metroplex Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas.
“We’re going to go back in the gym on Sunday and train,” Breaux said. “We’ll just do exactly what we’ve been doing, because what we’ve been doing is right. …We have a huge meet on Saturday, and I think the kids are very excited.”
