MEET RESULTS
AZUSA, Calif. -- A rematch of last year's National Collegiate Acrobatics & Tumbling Association (NCATA) national championship produced a similar result, as top-ranked defending champion Oregon won five of six events to hand last year's runner-up Azusa Pacific a six-point defeat in Wednesday's season opener. The Ducks posted a final score of 281.480, while the Cougars opened the season with a score of 275.100.
Oregon slowly built an early lead with small advantages in the compulsory and pyramid events as the teams also tied in the acro event, and the Ducks took a half-point lead (97.50-97.00) through three of the meet's six events.
The margin grew to over a full point when Oregon won the toss event, scoring 28.65 points to Azusa Pacific's 28.10, and the Ducks widened the gap significantly in tumbling. The Cougars' lone tumbling heat win came from junior Ahnaliese Spitzer, who nailed her aerial pass for a score of 9.825 points. However, all three of Oregon's solo passes resulted in scores of 9.70, and the Ducks compiled 56.10 points in six tumbling heats while Azusa Pacific registered 53.45 points in the same heats to fall behind by another 2.65 points.
"We have to have better focus on tumbling, because our practice for tumbling this year has been too nonchalant," Azusa Pacific head coach Colleen Kausrud said. "Getting the right people into the group passes will be an important challenge for us as we move forward. We don't have as much depth as some of the other programs, but I'm still confident that there's a lot we can do to bump up our scores and compete with the best programs as we've already proven we can do.
That gave Oregon a cushion of nearly four points heading into the team event, and the Ducks finished with another event win by scoring 99.23 points in the team event to Azusa Pacific's 96.55.
The Cougars have two more home meets, all in the front half of the 2015 schedule. Hawai?i Pacific visits the Felix Event Center on Tuesday, Feb. 17, and Azusa Pacific hosts Baylor on Monday, March 9.
