Every collegiate sport has Senior Night, when the team honors those members who are set to move on in their final home competition.
Ashley Lee, the lone graduating gymnast, had reason to celebrate for one last time at the PMAC on Friday.
The No. 10 Tigers (7-8, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) sent Lee off with a 196.850-194.900 victory against West Virginia, matching their season high as they look forward to next week’s SEC Championship meet in Duluth, Ga.
“If we have this kind of performance at SECs with a little more confidence, we’ll finish in the top of the pack,” said LSU coach D-D Breaux.
Freshman Rheagan Courville won the vault with a 9.925 and her fourth all-around title of the season with a score of 39.500, bringing her team-leading total up to 17 titles. Sophomore Sarie Morrison won her third-straight bars title with a 9.900. Freshman Randi Lau won her first beam title with a 9.850, and fellow freshman Lloimincia Hall matched her season-high score of 9.975 in the floor routine to win the exercise.
LSU handed West Virginia its first loss to an SEC opponent this season, as the Mountaineers previously beat both Auburn and Arkansas. Although she’s seen her last action in the PMAC, Lee and the Tigers will meet those two teams, along with the other five SEC gymnastics programs, in Duluth on Friday to compete for the SEC championship.
“I can’t change my mentality because the home meets are over,” Lee said. “There needs to be a new kind of intensity because these meets are really big for us. As sad as it is to be done in the PMAC, there’s still business that needs to be taken care of.”
Besides providing Lee with standing ovations after her performances, the Tiger faithful showed their lone senior love by kissing a giant cardboard cutout of her face, which appeared on the Kiss Cam flanked by two eager male fans. Surrounded by her teammates, tears welled up for Lee when a video containing kind words from the rest of the girls and her coaches played on the jumbotron following the win.
“It was bittersweet,” Lee said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better group of girls and coaches to spend this season with [and] these past four years. It was sad, but it was a good night.”
Lee added scores of 9.850 and 9.800 on vault and floor respectively, but Courville recalled the contributions the elder gymnast made off the mat this season.
“She’s one of a kind,” Courville said. “She’s the one that’s gotten me through the rough times. She brings a lot of laughter to our team. When we’re feeling down, she’s just always around to bring us up.”
Breaux said Lee is one of the few gymnasts on a very young team who knows how to prepare for postseason meets and that she’ll be vital to the Tigers moving forward.
“We need to carry our sense of humor, our aggressiveness, a sense of calm into our postseason,” Breaux said. “Ashley brings all of that to the table.”
—- Contact Alex Cassara at [email protected].