The LSU gymnastics team will get a much-needed break from Southeastern Conference play this weekend following its huge upset of then-No. 5 Alabama. Though tonight’s home meet against North Carolina and Illinois-Chicago is not as highly-touted a matchup as the top-10 competition the Tigers have faced recently, LSU coach D-D Breaux said she does not plan to rest any athletes this weekend.”We don’t have enough depth to play around with our lineup much,” Breaux said. “We’re having to go with same people.”LSU has had success against both the Tar Heels and the Flames in past meets. The Tigers are 10-1 all-time against Illinois-Chicago and 4-0 versus North Carolina. The Tigers defeated the Tar Heels earlier this season in the Cancun Classic meet. But the Tigers’ opponents enter the meet looking for a signature win of their own.”We are very excited,” said Illinois-Chicago gymnastics coach Peter Jansson. “We have a team this year that doesn’t have a weak event, and they are very excited about traveling to SEC country.”Senior Ashleigh Clare-Kearney said the Tigers are not concerned about their level of competition.”We have the mentality that we don’t have a defense, so we just have to go out there and perform the way we know how,” Clare-Kearney said.LSU defeated Alabama last Friday, 196.625-195.750, marking just the team’s second victory in Tuscaloosa, Ala. and their first since 1976. Clare-Kearney won her 100th career individual title during the meet against the Crimson Tide.Junior Susan Jackson said the team’s confidence is extremely high after last week’s upset win.”It feels great that we could actually come together and beat a team that we haven’t beaten in a long time, on their own playing field,” Jackson said.Freshman Gloria Johnson scored a career high 9.825 on the beam. She also scored a 9.825 on vault and a 9.775 on the floor. Her performance garnered her the title of SEC Freshman of the Week.Tonight’s meet begins a stretch of three consecutive home meets for LSU, something the Tigers are looking forward to.”We’re so glad we don’t have to travel because it feels like we’ve been traveling forever,” Clare-Kearney said. “Competing at home is always exciting because all our fans are behind us, and no one is going to clap when we fall.”The excitement and confidence level of the team are at an all-time high, but the Tigers know there is still work to do.”We’ve done a lot of hard work this week trying to perfect things,” Breaux said. “We’ve taken this week to break it down and work on the things that will make us a better team in three or four weeks.”      ——Contact Rob Landry at [email protected]