LSU coach D-D Breaux has laws for her gymnastics team. One of those laws is the law of holes: When a team finds itself in a hole, quit digging.The Tigers found themselves in a pretty deep hole after posting a 48.525 on the beam, their first event in the national prelims Thursday night. That score was their second worst score of the season on the event.But the team dug itself out of the hole to make it to the Super Six for the second-straight season by the slimmest of margins, as the Tigers posted a 196.300 to place third, a mere .075 better than Stanford.”We knew starting on beam, we would be shaky, and the worse case scenario happened,” Breaux said. “All that did was open the door for us to compete with reckless abandon, and we did just that.”The 196.300 was No. 4 LSU’s (24-7) worst performance since Feb. 27 against Arkansas when the team posted a 196.150 and was well below the team’s 196.760 regional qualifying score average.”Coming into it, we were a bit anxious, and starting on beam was like a double-whammy against us,” said LSU junior Susan Jackson, who finished fourth in the all-around Thursday. The Tigers counted a fall on the balance beam because both junior Summer Hubbard and senior Ashleigh Clare-Kearney fell on the apparatus, her fifth-straight on the beam.Clare-Kearney said she will start at the opposite end of the beam tonight.”I’m kind of at a loss of what to say,” Clare-Kearney said. “There is nothing more I can do, so I’m going to go out and try to end on a high note.”LSU then rebounded to post a 49.200 and a 49.450 on the floor and vault, respectively. Jackson and Clare-Kearney tied for the vault title with a 9.95, while Clare-Kearney placed second on the floor (9.90).”I was really upset after beam, but D-D, [floor assistant] Jewel [Fourrier] and [assistant coach] Bob [Moore] told me to put it in the past,” Clare-Kearney said. “After I had my pity party, I realized we still had a chance to make it to the Super Six.”The team finished up on the bars with another scare as sophomore Staci Schwitkis started the rotation with a fall.The rest of the team stayed on the apparatus en route to posting a 49.125.Four other Southeastern Conference schools — Georgia and Florida in the first session and Alabama and Arkansas in the second — joined LSU in the Super Six by placing first and second, respectively, in their respective sessions of the national prelims. UCLA rounds out the six teams.The Tigers will compete in the Super Six later this afternoon at 6 p.m., where they placed fifth last year. Individual competition will take place Saturday night at 6 p.m.——Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]