There’s an old adage that bad news comes in sets of threes.
The No. 22 LSU gymnastics team can attest to its truth after Friday night.
The Tigers (3-9, 0-6) suffered injuries to sophomore Ericka Garcia, freshman Sarie Morrison and freshman Maliah Mathis during their 196.950-194.750 loss to No. 2 Alabama.
Mathis suffered an abrasion to her cornea in one eye before the meet began but was able to compete in the meet. She scored a season-high 9.90 on the vault and a 9.875 on the floor exercise.
Morrison injured her ankle on her vault landing despite posting a 9.90 on the apparatus. She was unable to compete on the floor or balance beam.
Garcia went down with the most serious of the three injuries. She tore her ACL on the floor exercise and didn’t compete on the beam.
“It was one of those nights when you get lemons and you have to make lemonade,” said LSU coach D-D Breaux. “This was a tough meet for us to fight through.”
The injuries forced the Tigers to make substitutions on the beam and insert sophomore Janelle Garcia and freshmen Casey Duval and Sarah Zoldos.
Zoldos posted a 9.80 but Garcia and Duval both struggled, going 9.00 and 8.90, respectively.
Alabama (11-1, 5-1) didn’t have any issues, winning all five individual titles.
The Tigers will be able to use Friday’s score in their Regional Qualifying Score for the season, finally dropping the 193.350 from the season’s opening meet.
“It wasn’t what we needed, but we have to figure out what we can do now and push forward,” Breaux said.
LSU will have an opportunity to improve its RQS on Saturday when it will compete in the Southeastern Conference Championships meet in Birmingham, Ala.
 
 
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Contact Rob Landry at [email protected]