No. 3 Alabama Gymnastics Falls to No. 2 LSU in Close Meet

No. 3 Alabama gymnastics continues to be one of the most consistent teams in the country, but Friday night's performance wasn't quite enough to top No. 2 LSU in its home arena. Alabama only trailed by two tenths heading into the final rotation.

The Tigers beat the Crimson Tide 197.975-197.600. Alabama has scored above a 197 in all eight meets so far this season.

"I am so incredibly proud of this team for the toughness, the grit, the resiliency that they showed," Alabama head coach Ashley Johnston said after the meet. "I think to come out and compete in an environment like this is what it takes to prepare for being the best team in the country on the final night at the Final Four championship."

Alabama's best two rotation of the night came in the final two rotations as the Crimson Tide scored a 49.500 on floor exercise and a 49.425 on the balance beam. With the LSU crowd roaring after Tiger gymnast Kailin Chio scored a 9.975 on floor, Kylee Kvamme calmly capped the Tide's beam rotation with a 9.95 to boost the overall score.

"Even when it felt impossible to make the momentum go our way, they continued to create it," Johnston said. "That LSU crowd was loud, they were rowdy, and Bama continued to answer by creating our own noise, our own momentum, our own excitement.

"I think they specifically did that after bars and vault. I could really see them come together and decide that, 'We're going all in. We're finishing strong. We're going to build in any shape, way, form that we can. And while I think the sometimes the scores didn't necessarily reflect some of the great performances that we did, they had some career highs tonight."

Chloe LaCoursiere continued to prove why she is one of the best bars workers in the nation with another 9.95 on the apparatus. Overall, it was a disappointing night on the uneven bars for the Crimson Tide.

Alabama came into the meet with the highest average bars score in the country, but the Tide only scored a 49.375 on Friday. LaCoursiere and Ryan Fuller were the only gymnasts to score in the 9.9 range on the event. There were no major mistakes, but the little mistakes added up. In order to pull off the upset on the road, Alabama needed a stronger start on the bars.

The Crimson Tide is still struggling to find consistency in landings on the vault. None of the six gymnasts in the vault lineup stuck their landings against LSU, and the first two gymnasts of the rotation took big steps on their Yurchenko 1.5s and received big deductions. Jordyn Paradise scored a 9.9 to lead the way on the event.

Winning on the road in college gymnastics is extremely difficult, especially when going against a team as talented as the No. 2 Tigers, but Alabama still put up a strong road score and left many tenths out on the mat.

Alabama will very quickly get an opportunity to test itself against the Tigers again when the two teams meet alongside North Carolina in a tri-meet in Baton Rouge on Sunday at the P&G Podium Challenge.

"I will say, they are excited for a rematch," Johnston said. "So Sunday, they're going to come in hungry and eager to continue to get better."