AZUSA, Calif. -- Azusa Pacific bounced back from its only regular-season defeat, winning convincingly over the first-year program from Converse College in front of a supportive Senior Night crowd of 1,164 at the Felix Event Center.
Both programs registered a season-high total score, as Azusa Pacific won by a 10.2-point margin with 284.640 points to Converse's season-best 274.440. The Cougars honored an eight-member senior class following the team event shortly before celebrating the program's best regular-season record in program history with a 5-1 mark heading into the NCATA National Championships later this month.
Azusa Pacific won or tied all 20 heats in the contest, although it also began with a 10.51-point edge in total start values for the meet. The Cougars notched season-highs in four events and 10 heats, including the season's second perfect-10 score in the pyramid event. The open pyramid featuring seniors Ashleigh Pitts, Rachel Shier, and Jamie Nolta registered the perfect score, following near-perfect scores of 9.95 (inversion) and 9.90 (synchronized) to post a season-best pyramid event score totaling 29.85 points.
What It Means: Azusa Pacific has done everything it can do to secure the No. 2-seed in the upcoming NCATA National Championships, finishing the regular season on a high note after suffering its only defeat this season less than two weeks earlier at three-time defending national champion Baylor. The Cougars tied the program's best regular-season win total (5) and posted the best regular-season winning percentage (.833) in the program's eight-year history. Azusa Pacific has appeared in the national semifinals in two of the past three seasons, and the Cougars advanced to the national championship finals in 2014 after going 5-2 in the regular season.
Top Performances: The Cougars produced eight heats which scored 9.90 or better, and another seven heats finished with scores of 9.70 or better. In fact, Azusa Pacific scored 9.70 or better in 10 consecutive heats, starting with all three heats of the acro event, plus three heats in the pyramid and three more in the toss event before Courtney Moser and Heather Hovander recorded a season-high 9.75 score in the duo tumbling pass.
Pitts collected the season's highest individual tumbling score with 9.925 in the aerial tumbling heat. Two other seniors closed out the tumbling event as Hovander notched a 9.725 in the six-element tumbling pass before Hannah Steffen tied her season-high in open tumbling with a score of 9.900.
Other season-high scores came in the following events: compulsory pyramid (9.95), five-element acro (9.95), seven-element acro (9.70), synchronized pyramid (9.90), 450 salto toss (9.80), and quad tumbling (9.40).
The eight-member senior class (MaryKate Cacchione, Hovander, Noelle Miranda, Nolta, Pitts, Shier, Jolynn Stahl, and Steffen) was represented in every heat of Thursday's regular-season finale.
What's Next: On Wednesday, April 12, qualifiers and seedings will be announced for the 2018 NCATA National Championships, which take place April 26-28 at Gannon University in Erie, Pa.
Quotable: "This group of seniors never expected to be looked up to, but they certainly earned it. Everybody enjoys them and respect everything they do, and their teammates watch them and look up to them, and I think that's the base of our success this year. It's a little scary going into a meet when you know the start values are significantly different, but they came out focused in front of their home crowd. I didn't know what to expect from our seniors competing in their last home game, but I loved seeing how happy and excited they were to be out here." -- Head Coach Colleen Kausrud
"We feel an extra closeness as a team each time we compete, and we really trusted each other tonight. This meet was a lot of fun for me. I surprised myself in the solo tumbling, because I don't think I have executed them that well in practice. We're continuing to get better and better in different areas each meet, and it really feels like we can peak at nationals, which is exactly what we want." -- Senior Ashleigh Pitts
"We started off strong and had great energy throughout the meet. It's incredible to finish out the year like this, and it's amazing to think about the impact and legacy our senior class can leave with this team." -- Senior Rachel Shier
"This year, I transitioned somewhat away from giving to the team in an athletic way and into more of a supportive role of the younger classes because our freshman class is incredibly talented. I've grown in so many ways over the last four years, and I'm looking forward to finishing the season strong and taking this as far as we can to show that we're one of the best teams in the country." -- Senior Noelle Miranda
