The LSU Tigers advanced to the regional final of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night, and on Saturday, they faced off with No. 8 Michigan State, No. 9 Kentucky and No. 16 Arkansas with a trip to the semifinals on the line.

And boy was it a good one.

The Tigers got the night started on the uneven bars, and the true freshman, Lexi Zeiss, earned a massive 9.925 to give LSU some early momentum.

Unlike Thursday where she had to wait a while, Ashley Cowan, LSU's bar specialist, got to get her lone performance out of the way early and received a solid 9.875 in the two spot. She was followed by Kailin Chio, who earned a 9.900.

Aleah Finnegan went fourth and made a mistake almost immediately, but responded by finishing the routine strong to earn a 9.850. McClain also had some problems, but her came on the dismount where she had to take a couple steps to recover. She also scored a 9.850. Finally, Haleigh Bryant anchored with a 9.900 to give LSU an opening rotation score of 49.450.

There seemed to be some nerves as a few Tigers made some uncharacteristic mistakes, but they were minimal, and they still led by .025 through one rotation.

The Tigers moved to the balance beam for their second event of the night. On Thursday, Kylie Coen led off, but tonight, Jay Clark moved senior Sierra Ballard back to the first spot. She got things started with a 9.900, but Coen topped her with a 9.925. However, Kailin Chio bested them both with a 9.950 in the three spot. Getting those three scores with the front half of their beam rotation was absolutely massive.

Konnor McClain had to follow Chio's 9.950, which isn't always easy to do, but the 2024 SEC beam champion wasn't phased and put a 9.925. When you can have four gymnasts give you a 9.900+ before two of the best gymnasts in the sport, Haleigh Bryant and Aleah Finnegan, even perform, you're going to be in a good spot.

Bryant and Finnegan anchored the beam rotation, and even after those four massive scores, they didn't waiver. Bryant posted a 9.925 and Finnegan posted a 9.950, meaning Ballard's 9.900 was dropped, which is just insane.

Despite LSU's massive team score of 49.675, they didn't pull away too far. Michigan State had a massive vault rotation, scoring a 49.650 to keep within half a tenth of the Tigers.

Kylie Coen got the lead off nod on floor over Sierra Ballard this afternoon. She's been rock solid on the event since she was inserted into the lineup, never scoring below a 9.875 in five competitions. But today, she could "only" earn a 9.850.

Sierra Ballard followed Coen in the two spot and earned a 9.900 before Konnor McClain made her first appearance on the floor exercise since injuring her achilles this past summer. You'd never guess by the way she looked out there. She drilled all her passes and looked very strong en route to earning a 9.900.

Having a couple 9.900s on the board with Amari Drayton, Aleah Finnegan and Haleigh Bryant still to go had to feel good. These three have anchored the event all season long, and they've delivered pretty much every time.

Drayton got the trio started with a 9.925 before Finnegan, who went through some midseason struggles stepping out of bounds, scored a massive 9.975. Bryant had to take a little side step on her first pass, but still finished the event with a 9.875.

Through three rotations, LSU maintained their .050 lead over Michigan State, but basically guaranteed themselves to move on by growing their lead to third place to 0.475.

As long as LSU didn't completely mess up the final rotation, they were all but guaranteed to advance to the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament. Oh, and they were on their best event: vault.

KJ Johnson led off the event, and as she always does, she stuck her yurchenko full and earned a 9.900. Lexi Zeiss and Aleah Finnegan were only able to put up a pair of 9.825s, but Amari Drayton matched Johnson's 9.900 in the four spot.

With two gymnasts to go, as long as Chio and Bryant didn't both fall, the Tigers would punch their ticket to the semifinals. Chio was a bit off balance on her landing and took a small hop back, but her 9.750 was enough to make sure they advanced, but Michigan State was right on their heels for the win. However, Bryant anchored the event with a 9.900 to spoil the Spartans chances.

Even though LSU didn't have their best stuff on their best event, they scored a 198.050 and won the meet. This team is going to be hard to beat in Fort Worth in a couple weeks.

Michigan State, who manage to keep pace with the Tigers all meet long, fell just short of first place, finished 0.050 behind the Tigers. They did still advance to the national semifinals, which is all that matters in the end.

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