LSU gymnastics coach D-D Breaux spent the week leading up to her team’s meet against New Hampshire bumping up the intensity in practice hoping it would result in a bumped-up score.
It worked.
The Tigers (3-8) put together their second 196 score of the season in a 196.000-194.350 victory over the Wildcats (9-6).
The score came just a week after LSU posted its lowest score in more than a decade in a loss to Kentucky.
“It was a big improvement over last week, and we still have a lot of work to do,” Breaux said. “I feel like we’ve been treading water now, and we now we have to make forward progress. I cannot let up, and this team is only intense when I’m intense.”
Going to the floor exercise, the final apparatus of the meet for the Tigers, it appeared unlikely they would be able to reach the 196 mark.
LSU needed to post a 49.300 on the floor, but its highest individual even score of the season was a 49.275 against Georgia on Feb. 18.
But the lowest score the Tigers counted on the floor was a 9.80 en route to exactly the 49.300 mark they needed.
“I’m so proud,” said freshman Maliah Mathis. “We had a really rough week coming from Kentucky. We just had to keep it together though and not let it get to us. We had to use that meet not as a negative but as a positive to help us do better this week.”
The highlight of the evening came from LSU’s lone senior, Sam Engle.
Engle, who has battled an ankle injury throughout the season, performed on floor for the first time since the season’s opening meet at Oregon State.
Her final performance in the PMAC was good enough for a 9.90 score, which earned her the floor title and tied her career high on the apparatus.
“I didn’t want to get up off the floor after it was over,” Engle said. “I just wanted to stay there. That was probably the best routine I’ve done in my career.”
The emotion of Senior Night hit the entire Engle family.
“It was very emotional,” Engle said. “My mom is an absolute wreck, as is my dad. But I just wanted to come in here and have a great meet.”
The high score gave the Tigers a boost in the rankings, up two spots to No. 22 in the latest polls, but Breaux knows the team cannot rest on its laurels.
“We have to keep pushing through the season because I am not going to be happy until we are at the National Championships, on the floor, fighting hard to get into the Super Six,” Breaux said. “We are capable, and we have the talent to make it.”