No.2 LSU extends its home winning streak to 24-straight with its fifth score of 197 in a row.
The Tigers (5-0, 4-0 Southeastern Conference) defeated No.11 Missouri 197.425-195.425 in a hard-fought win Friday night.
“We did a tremendous amount of difficulty tonight,” LSU coach D-D Breaux said. “We were almost intimidated by ourselves because the crowd was great and the energy was fabulous and I think the kids were trying so hard to be perfect instead of just being themselves”
Despite some missteps along the way, LSU put up strong scores, sweeping the four individual event titles and the all-around.
In the first rotation, the Tigers started off strong with a score of 49.400, with five 10.0 start value vaults. Junior all-arounder Myia Hambrick and senior all-arounder Ashleigh Gnat sharing the event title with a score of 9.95.
Freshman all-arounder Ruby Harrold captured her first individual NCAA event title, with a 9.875 on bars.
Sophomore all-arounder Sarah Finnegan scored a 9.95 to win the title on beam.
Senior all-arounder Sydney Ewing set the tone for the final rotation with a 9.90 on floor, where Gant scored a 9.95 to win the event title.
Freshman all-arounder Kennedi Edney took home her second all-around title with a score of 39.375 after unexpectedly competing in the floor exercise for the second week in a row. Edney put up solid scored on all events, even with a few unstuck dismounts.
“She’s just got to settle down, find some maturity and be able to focus and stick that vault,” Breaux said. “When she does, it’s going to score well because it’s so high and it’s so big. That’s maturing, that’s just being able to control her emotions and stay in the process as she completes the routines in competition.”
“We don’t see these kind of mistakes in practice so it was very uncharacteristic for them and it was very uncharacteristic for the coaching staff. To have this kind of meet and still put out this kind of score is exciting. It’s a real plus side.”
The Tigers will travel to Fayetteville next Friday to face Arkansas.
