AZUSA, Calif. – The Cougars stayed within striking distance of four-time national champion Oregon Friday evening inside the Felix Event Center, but ultimately came up short, falling to the Ducks by a final of 272.51-269.275.

How It Happened:  Oregon (1-1) had already competed once this season, and their experience showed early, winning three of the four heats in the compulsory event and taking an early lead of over half a point, 38.10-37.55.  Both teams put up an impressive 9.90 on the compulsory toss heat, which was the highest score the Cougars achieved all night.  The Cougars bounced back with a strong acro heat, scoring a 0.4-point advantage in the newly-synchronized 6-element heat and putting up a 9.75 in the 7-element heat behind the work of Jacie Van de Zilver, Madiha Morris, Ellie Sousa, and Brianna Fong.  Their work narrowed the gap to just five-hundredths of a point after two events.

The fifth-ranked Ducks had their best score of the evening with a 9.95 in the inverted pyramid heat, helping Oregon stretch their advantage back to just shy of half a point at intermission.  But the Cougars again came back and won the toss event narrowly, highlighted by a 9.65 in the open toss heat by Maria Hurst, Erin Schmitt, McKenna Meyers, Morris, and Fong.  That got the deficit back to just three-tenths heading into the tumbling event.  The Cougars won three of the six tumbling passes, with the highest score in the run being the 9.875 put up in the 6-element pass by Van de Zilver.  However, Oregon scratched out the win in the heat by a quarter of a point, taking a lead of 0.525 into the team event.  The Ducks' performance was cleaner in the team event, taking home a 92.91 to the Cougars' 90.20 to pull out a three-point victory.

Up Next:  Azusa Pacific (0-1) will next take to the mats on February 27th when they host last year's national runner-up Gannon.  The meet will start at 7:00 p.m. in the Event Center, and can be livestreamed HERE.