BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The LSU gymnastics squad’s dream of a national championship has come down to one final meet.
Throughout the 2014 season, the Tigers (23-7) have proved to the nation that their hopes of claiming the program’s first team national title were genuine expectations rather than farfetched fantasies. But after 14 competitions, the opportunity for the squad to seize its goal has finally arrived.
For the second consecutive season, LSU will compete in the NCAA Super Six Finals for a shot at the national title. The Tigers will square off against No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 4 Alabama, No. 6 Georgia and No. 9 Nebraska in the championship meet Saturday at 6 p.m.
Entering the Super Six finals, LSU has scored at least a 197 in a school-record 12 consecutive meets en route to smashing nearly every major team record that stood before the season started. 
Yet despite the Tigers’ extraordinary season, they’ve struggled to carry their typically towering confidence level into the BJCC Arena in two appearances, with the most recent coming in Semifinal 1 of the NCAA Championships on Friday.
In the semifinal meet, LSU registered a 197.100, its second lowest score of the season, for a third-place finish. But senior Sarie Morrison, who will compete for the final time of her collegiate career Saturday, said Friday’s meet shouldn’t have any bearing on the Tigers’ performance in the Super Six finals.
“The cool thing about everything is that none of the scores from [Friday] go over to Super Six,” Morrison said. ““We didn’t look exactly like ourselves [on Friday], but it’s done, and we made Super Six. Our goal is to win then.”
According to junior all-arounder Rheagan Courville, LSU’s struggles in Friday’s meet weren’t the result of poor mechanics but rather a loss of focus. But she said it was a necessary tune-up for the squad’s final opportunity of the season.
“I think we just kind of let the nerves and the environment get to us, and I think that since we were able to do that today and get that out, we’ll be fine for Super Six,” Courville said. “We’ve worked way too hard this season for [Friday] to be our final performance, and we’re excited that we get to go out there one more time.”
But Saturday’s championship meet is bound to be the toughest obstacle the Tigers will have encountered in all their visits to the BJCC Arena thus far.
Five other championship-caliber teams will be competing for their own dreams of a national title, and each squad and their respective fans will breathe a sigh of relief if LSU continues its trend of subpar performances in Birmingham, Ala.
According to LSU coach D-D Breaux, the only way for her squad to complete its season-long mission of winning the title is to block out the many distractions that will undoubtedly be swirling around them and focus on the supreme talent that stacks their lineup.
“Self confidence is the first prerequisite to great undertakings,” Breaux said. “If we come in here with self confidence and a cocky assuredness, this team will do well. We’ve got the difficulty, and our body of work is as good if not better than anybody in this arena. We just have to bring it.”
If the Tigers simply take a look at their body of work from the season, they should have no trouble regaining the confidence they’ve displayed for most of it.
Until this season, the highest score an LSU squad had ever posted was a 197.850, set in 2005. But the squad erased that record from the books when they scored a 197.875 in the Metroplex Challenge Feb. 15.
As if that wasn’t enough to appease their appetite, the Tigers broke the record two more times before the end of the season, and the school-record 198.325 they scored in the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional on April 5 tied the defending champion Gators for the nation’s highest output of the season.
LSU’s high-octane season led to five gymnasts earning 2014 Regular Season All-American recognition. Freshmen Ashleigh Gnat and Sydney Ewing and sophomore Jessica Savona also added to the Tigers’ impressive résumé when they earned All-American status for their performances Friday, and junior all-arounder Jessie Jordan said it showed just how dangerous the squad is capable of being.   
“That’s what it means to be part of a team is and everyone step up around you when something doesn’t go your way,” Jordan said. “There was different people throughout the lineup that did amazing. We’re ready for them to bring that again tomorrow.”
Through the many highlights and few low points of LSU’s historic season, Breaux has taught her squad the necessity of focusing on the task at hand. 
So with one final meet separating the Tigers from a potential national championship, Breaux’s only message to the team was the same phrase she’s  engrained in their minds for the entire season — just stay in the process.