LSU Gymnastics Team Looks To Get Back On Track In First Home Meet Against Kentucky On Friday

By ANDRE CHAMPAGNE, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter

The No. 4 LSU gymnastics team looks to bounce back from last week’s loss at No. 5 Georgia on Friday as the Tigers host No. 39 Kentucky in the first home meet of the season at the Pete Maravich Center (6:30 p.m., ESPN2).  

LSU (2-1-1, 0-1 Southeastern Conference) dropped its first road meet of the season to Georgia (2-0, 1-0 SEC) 196.850-197.200, which marked the Tigers’ lowest score since last year’s road opener at No. 17 Arkansas (196.600).

“Not exactly the way we wanted it to go by any stretch of the imagination, but the sky’s not falling and we’re fine,” coach Jay Clark said on Tuesday. “We’ve got a great group of kids and we knew going into this year that there might be a little bit of growing pains. So, certainly we don’t want to self-destruct and that’s what we did, but Georgia is certainly an improved team and that’s a tough place to go . We’ve been on the road for two straight weeks and so going forward, we get to come home now and get in front of our people and feed off that energy and try to kind of hit the reset button and move forward.”

LSU, which has been dominant on vault over the last several years, scored a 49.075 in Athens. Clark said the Tigers must be better across the board against Kentucky (0-4, 0-1 SEC) on Friday.

“We got sloppy and landings were sloppy and that’s something that we’re addressing,” Clark said. “We’re making sure that we understand that what we do in practice has got to be at a high standard. We cannot take things for granted and expect to progress the way that we want to progress throughout the season.”

It will be the first home meet for seven Tigers, including senior Emily Innes. Innes, a Washington transfer, said she’s looking forward to performing in front of a full PMAC.

“I’m excited. I got a little taste of it during Purple and Gold, but I’m just excited to be out on the floor again with a full crowd out there,” Innes said on Tuesday. “I’ve never experienced something like that, so I’m excited to do it with these girls, especially.”