D-D Breaux admits she was nervous. The new NCAA gymnastics postseason format does that to you. 
The Tigers didn’t get off to a great start on Friday as they faced UCLA, Utah and Michigan in the NCAA Semifinal for a spot in the national championship meet on Saturday.
Sophomore all-arounder Christina Desiderio fell off the beam in the leadoff spot, and LSU seemed to be doomed from there. 
But bouncing back from struggles has been a theme for the LSU gymnastics team this season. 
From early struggles to a come-from-behind Southeastern Conference championship victory, the Tigers are no strangers to being fighters. That was no different Friday afternoon. 
Sophomore all-arounder Bridget Dean hit a 9.775 in the second spot, and every gymnast after that went 9.80 or higher. Senior all-arounder Sarah Finnegan capped off the lineup with a 9.9375. 
“We started out a little bit shaky, and I thought that we can’t carry this throughout the meet,” said LSU coach D-D Breaux. “The kids gained momentum. Bridget went and reestablished herself. Sami Durante, I thought her beam routine was beautiful. Sarah brought it home, and that kept us in the meet.”
Breaux said that by not making any other major mistakes, they “stayed in the hunt,” despite being behind the leader at that point by two-tenths. 
If there’s a fall, the Tigers always say ‘It stops with me,’ and they held true to that sentiment today. 
“I’m so proud that no one got emotionally overwhelmed, no one lost their focus and we left our goal in sight,” Finnegan said. “I definitely think that we did a good job of keeping the energy up and keeping our mind focused on what the goal was because we still had three events.”
After beam, Breaux said she told her team it was time for “Beastmode.”
LSU encountered another road bump in the next rotation, when Desiderio stepped out of bounds on floor for a 9.6375.
Once again, the Tigers rallied back and Beastmode came alive.
Senior all-arounder Lexie Priessman hit a 9.875 in the third spot, junior all-arounder Kennedi Edney hit a 9.9125 and senior all-arounder McKenna Kelley finished it off with a 9.925. 
“I didn’t really think about that,” Priessman said. “I didn’t see Christina’s routine so I didn’t even know that happened until I saw her score. I just went up there and did my job and the rest of the lineup did fabulous as well. You can’t really focus on that when you go, you just have to think one pass at a time.
“If a mistake happens — well, we call ourselves Fighting Tigers for a reason.”
The rest of the meet was smooth sailing for the Tigers as they hit routine after routine. 
“I think we caught momentum coming off of McKenna’s amazing floor routine going into vault,” Finnegan said. “We caught that momentum, and D-D always says that momentum is a dangerous drug. It definitely helped us finish strong.”
LSU scored its second highest vault rotation of the season with a 49.450, with Edney looking to notch another individual national championship on the event with a 9.95. 
“I saw confidence before they even went [on vault],” Priessman said. “You could just tell on their faces, ‘hey we’re about to stick these landings,’ and that’s what they did. All we needed today were clean vaults, and that’s what they did.”
LSU closed the meet out strong with a 49.4375 on the uneven bars. 
It only gets tougher for LSU from here, but the Tigers aren’t worried about who’s on the other side of the floor. 
“We knew coming into this meet that on day one, we didn’t need to be perfect,” Kelley said. “We had to do what we needed to do to get to Saturday. Of course there were nerves, but we know this team and we’re Fighting Tigers and we weren’t worried.”