Can the Tigers’ momentum travel with them?
It’s the biggest road trip yet, and I’ll be there to see it live.
The reigning SEC and national champion #3 LSU gymnastics team is on the road again for the biggest road test of the season. After a stupendous performance against Missouri at home, the Tigers will have to show that such level of performance can travel when they face #14 Alabama in historic Coleman Coliseum. The meet begins at 8:00 on ESPN2 with John Roethlisberger and Sam Peszek on the call.
Matchup history vs Alabama
LSU is 33-102-2 against Alabama in all competitions and 6-26 at Alabama. The 102 losses are the most LSU has suffered to one opponent by 24. The first of those six wins at Alabama came in 1976, a meet in which LSU was coached by Jackie Walker and Bama was coached by Sheila Hill. The second came in 2009, Sarah Patterson’s lone home loss to LSU in her storied career. Since Patterson’s retirement before the 2015 season, LSU is 16-8 overall, 8-2 in the regular season, and 4-1 in Coleman. The sole loss in Coleman came in 2021 against a reduced crowd to the eventual SEC champions.
Alabama is wearing the same leotards they wore in their last meeting with LSU at the 2024 SEC Championship, a meet that LSU won overall and over the second-place Tide 198.075-197.750. The last time they met in the regular season came earlier that season in the PMAC in a 198.325-197.325 drubbing,
LSU has weekly rankings cited for teams for every season since 1997. This will be the first time, according to those records, that Alabama will enter a dual meet with LSU outside the top 10.
About #14 Alabama
Alabama had a solid season in 2024 that ended with the biggest single-meet collapse I’ve ever seen in person. As mentioned above, the Tide finished as SEC runners up, but they finished eighth overall after their semifinal collapse. Oklahoma’s vault meltdown was Three Mile Island; Alabama’s beam meltdown was Chernobyl, and it came the next rotation. Their 47.2500 on beam was their worst beam score in 30 years. This year is about getting above that.
The Tide have now lost 12 NQS routines and 1 NQS AA from their 2024 squad with the recent medical retirement of fifth-year Cameron Machado, with the biggest losses being from fifth-year seniors Luisa Blanco, Ella Burgess, Makarri Doggette (tore Achilles in touch warm-ups of Georgia meet) and current Arkansas sixth-year senior Mati Waligora. Shania Adams is the remaining fifth-year senior on the roster. This team added nobody in the portal, but their freshman class is solid with top-20 recruits Ryan Fuller and Kylee Kvamme and burgeoning four-star Paityn Walker. Gabby Gladieux and Lilly Hudson remain the stars, with Hudson continuing the grand tradition of the “Sweet Home Alabama” floor routine that, take it from someone who’s seen it twice in Coleman, works way better than you think when the environment is set up for it.
The Tide are 1-3 overall and 0-3 in SEC play, the only remaining winless team in the conference. Their most recent meet was a 196.975-196.575 loss to then-#12 Georgia, the GymDogs’ first win over Bama since 2021. Alabama’s 0-3 mark includes a loss at home to Oklahoma, the only home loss an SEC team has suffered in conference play in the 2025 season to date. Alabama’s opening 197.025 is their best score to date by 0.450, but they’ve improved every week since their 196.100 at Kentucky in Week 2.
Alabama is ranked #9 on vault [49.156], #10 on bars [49.194], 17th on beam [49.000] and #15 on floor [49.150]. I don’t know what to expect from Alabama because they either show up well against LSU or they fall flat on their faces in comparison. The Crimson Tide are led by Ashley Johnston in her third season at the helm. She is assisted by associate head coach Justin Spring in his third season, assistant coach Amelia Hundley in her second season and former Illinois women’s assistant coach turned Alabama assistant coach Ross Thompson.
About #3 LSU
LSU is ranked #1 on vault [49.410], #2 on bars [49.360], #5 on beam [49.305] and #3 on floor [49.345].
The only major change that’s likely to happen is that Kaliya Lincoln will make her floor debut. Jay said as much after the Missouri meet. My best guess is that she’ll take Chase Brock’s spot. Other than that, there’s a small chance Haleigh Bryant makes her debut on vault this season tonight, though it’s far more likely that comes against Oklahoma.
This is LSU’s sixth meet of the season and third on the road, which means LSU will have an NQS after tonight. It’s unlikely that any national rankings will switch over to NQS until the Week 7 rankings since most teams will have an NQS by then. For those who don’t know or forgot, an NQS is calculated thusly: take a team’s top three road scores, add in their top three scores from anywhere else (road or home), drop the highest score and average the remaining five scores. The same system is used to calculate individual NQS scores. Remember that every 0.025 increase of the lowest score in a team’s NQS increases that NQS by 0.005.
This should be a fun and good meet (I knocked on wood the second I wrote that), and I can’t wait to go. If you’re going to Coleman, there are some things you should know. Take it from me, a person who’s been two time in the last year.
Coleman notes from a two-time visitor
First, I’m in section J, so if you wanna come say hi, I’ll be there. Look for the guy wearing black headphones in a Saints jacket and it’s probably me.
Second, park in the parking garage near the baseball stadium, it’s free. I didn’t know this on my initial visit and I parked three miles away like a fool.
Third, meet programs are $8, but they’re a book compared to the folder LSU gives you. Pens and markers cost extra.
Fourth, Alabama is giving away “Bama-ly” t-shirts tonight, and I think it’s funnier to keep it than to give it away.
Fifth, Alabama has the most annoying tradition in the sport by miles. If a gymnast sticks their landing on the first three events, the emcee will shout “she said what?” to which the crowd responds “she said stick.” You may have heard this on TV, but I promise you are not ready for how much more irritating it’ll be in person.
Sixth, and most important, you will be underwhelmed by the meet environment. LSU is on a different stratosphere in terms of meet environment. I saw them put up a 49.750 on floor against Georgia and it wasn’t as energetic as an LSU 49.350, and I was about ten rows from the floor of the arena compared to the nosebleed general admission seats I have in the PMAC.
Seventh and finally, remember all of the stuff you did for this meet just in case LSU gets sent here in April. LSU’s #3 ranking would have them in the Tuscaloosa Regional, and that feels like a very likely spot for them to finish the regular season.