Greetings from the world capital of glitz and glamour – Las Vegas, Nevada! The LSU Tigers gymnastics team has trekked to the Great Southwest Desert to take on three teams in tonight’s Lady Luck Invitational.
Tonight’s meet is taking place inside the large exhibit hall attached to the South Point Hotel and Casino just off Las Vegas Boulevard and just a short distance from the famed Las Vegas Strip. The cavernous exhibit hall, some 150,000+ square feet, has been turned into not one, but 4 separate gymnasiums – each with a set of uneven bars, a floor exercise, vault and two balance beams.
The Tigers joined Missouri and Kentucky at a late afternoon workout yesterday inside the facility. Arizona State, a late Thursday arrival, elected to workout into the evening hours.
LSU looked remarkably relaxed and confident in yesterday’s workout. The Tigers, along with the nice contingent of purple and gold fans on hand, made lots of noise inside the exhibit hall. While Kentucky took it in stride, Missouri seemed rattled by the high-energy output.
Only 9 LSU gymnasts made the trip to Las Vegas on Wednesday. The injury bug reared its ugly head on Tuesday as Nikki Lyons suffered a severely sprained ankle on a bars dismount. This was not the same ankle that required multiple surgeries to repair over last season. Lyons remained in Baton Rouge to received twice-daily treatments in the hopes of returning the lineup in the next month.
Lyons returned the lineup in last week’s season opener after missing the entire 2009 campaign. She was making slow but steady progress on bars and vault prior to this new injury.
A Look Back At Maryland
At first glance, the LSU Tigers season opening performance a week ago might seem, well, weak to the casual gymnastics observer. After all, a team score of 194.375 is not something home crowds are used to seeing. However, looking back at opening meets over the past few years, this score compared favorably to other first-meet scores – a reflection of Head Coach D-D Breaux’s strategy of building routines slowly and steadily throughout any given season.
Senior Susan Jackson got her season off to a flying start against the Terrapins. Jackson won three individual events including bars, floor and the all-around giving her 32 career titles overall. Her 39.275 in all four events was good enough for fifth best in the country last week.
Other highlights of the meet were courtesy of senior Kayla Rogers who opened up 2010 in strong fashion. The Liberty, Missouri native scored 9.80 or better in each of the three events she competed. Summer Hubbard’s 9.80 paced the Tigers on beam while the floor exercise team combined for a 48.975 which was fourth best in the country last week.
A lowlight of the evening was the surprisingly negative display of sportsmanship by the Maryland coaching staff. Let’s hope that’s the end of such displays for the remainder of 2010.
Lady Luck Lineups
With only 9 gymnasts available for tonight’s meet, the LSU lineup will have a decidedly youthful feel to it. Sophomore Ashley Lee gets her first-ever call on floor exercise while freshmen Shelby Prunty and Janelle Garcia see significant action.
Prunty will be an alternate on the vault team and Garcia will exhibition on three events – bars, beam and floor. Here’s the remainder of the Tiger’s lineup for tonight’s Lady Luck Invitational. LSU will begin on vault and end on floor.
Vault
Kayla Rogers
Sabrina Franceschelli
Ashley Lee
Summer Hubbard
Gloria Johnson
Susan Jackson
Shelby Prunty - alternate
Bars
Sabrina Franceschelli
Kayla Rogers
Samantha Engle
Summer Hubbard
Susan Jackson
Shelby Prunty
Janelle Garcia – exhibition
Beam
Gloria Johnson
Shelby Prunty
Samantha Engle
Sabrina Franceschelli
Summer Hubbard
Susan Jackson
Janelle Garcia – exhibition
Floor
Kayla Rogers
Ashley Lee
Sabrina Franceschelli
Summer Hubbard
Samantha Engle
Susan Jackson
Janelle Garcia – exhibition
Injury Report
Kaleigh Dickson (knee cap surgery) – likely will redshirt the 2010 season
Lainie Fleming (hand/wrist surgery) – out indefintiely
Ericka Garcia (eligibility issue) – scheduled to see first action on February 12 against Texas Woman’s in the Maravich Center
Nikki Lyons (sprained ankle) – out three to four weeks
Tonight’s Meet
If history is a guide, LSU should have little trouble winning tonight’s meet. The Tigers have a combined record of 93-17 against the three other teams in the 2010 Lady Luck Invitational.
However, history, by definition, is a thing of the past. With such a thin line-up that will rely on freshmen in key situations, a win is far from certain tonight for the 16th ranked Tigers.
Kentucky is a much-improved team and program under the guidance of Mo Mitchell. Look for the Gym Kats top three performers to pace Kentucky tonight – Andrea Mitchell, Hillary Ferguson and Jasmine Minion. Kentucky comes in ranked 14th on the strength of last week’s score of 194.850.
Look for Missouri to compete four all-arounders tonight. Last week, these Tigers found significant success against Ohio State with Mary Burke, Danielle Guider, Sarah Shire, and Lauren Swankoski in the all-around. Missouri’s score of 194.725 last week is good enough for a #15 ranking in the polls this week.
Tonight’s meet serves as as the season opener for Arizona State. Head coach John Spini begins his 30th year guiding the Gym Devils. He will call upon his talented junior Mary Atkinson to score big all season long. Just like LSU, Arizona State is forced to cover a significant injury to Beate Jones with freshman help. It’s possible we’ll see three freshmen and a transfer performing for the first time on the collegiate level tonight for Arizona State.
Twitter!
There will be no live scoring for tonight’s meet, so be sure to signup for LSU Gymnastics tweets on Twitter.com/lsugym. LSU SID Jake Terry will be sending out tweets to update Tigers fans on superlative individual performances, team scores after each rotation, and, of course, the final team and individual scores upon completion of the meet.
Mike’s Eye On The Tigers
Here are a few things I will be looking for tonight in Las Vegas:
- A relaxed and confident Tiger team that has found unity in its small group. Will the swagger follow?
- An injury-free meet for everyone – a must coming out of this meet
- Janelle Garcia competing as an exhibition gymnast in three events. A good showing tonight could lead to an even larger role for this freshman later in the season.
- Three Tiger (Jackson, Franceschelli, Hubbard) to score a combined 117 or better in the all-around. That’s an average of 39.000 or better for each individual. Scores like this will take significant pressure off the rest of the youthful lineup.
Please join us live in the Geaux Zone at 9pm Central Time for our first broadcast of the 2010 season. Jewell Fourrier will once again join me in the booth as we bring you all the action from Las Vegas.
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