The No. 24 LSU gymnastics team (1-5) can authenticate last weekend’s strong performance by following it up at home Friday against BYU (8-1-2).
The Tigers broke the 195 mark for the first time this season at the Metroplex Challenge last weekend, and they did it by more than half a point.
“They’ve got to be able to come back in the gym and look at the video and remember the performance and remember the excitement and duplicate that,” said LSU coach D-D Breaux.
Despite the season-high score last weekend, Breaux said the Tigers are nowhere near the level they are capable of performing.
“I know the team is not pleased,” Breaux said. “We expect to be a top-10 team. Even as young as we are, our expectations aren’t any less than they are each year.”
One of those freshman dazzled last weekend. Sarie Morrison scored at least a 9.800 in each apparatus and took home third place in the all-around competition.
“I think this [past] weekend we came together as a team,” Morrison said. “We’ve been working on the details. We’re just trying to build on our bonding experience and show everyone what team we want to be.”
Friday’s meet against BYU will mark LSU’s second home meet of the season. The Cougars sit just outside the top 25 at No. 27 in the nation, only three spots behind LSU.
The Tigers left much to be desired in their first home meet. No. 1 Florida lived up to its top ranking, thrashing LSU by more than two points at the PMAC.
Breaux said many of LSU’s freshmen were intimidated by the healthy crowd at LSU’s home opener.
“I’d like to see our practice performances in competition, because that’s really what’s killing us,” she said. “We’re a 196-plus team, but we have people that are practicing pretty well and then going into meets and losing their nerve.”
Junior Ashley Lee said she saw a fresh attitude and attention to detail in Saturday’s meet that LSU didn’t display in the loss to Florida. She said if the Tigers can keep that consistency and cohesiveness throughout the season they will be successful.
“When we did make mistakes we didn’t let that affect us throughout the lineup, and we came back stronger after a mistake,” Lee said.
Breaux said she expects the Tigers to welcome the spotlight as the team matures.
“This is not a sport for the scared,” Breaux said. “You’ve got to leave your fears at home, check it at the door and do your gymnastics.”
Morrison said she’s not worried about any regressions after the strong performance last weekend.
“We proved to ourselves we can be really good,” she said.