AZUSA, Calif. – The Cougars' comeback effort on the mats was not quite enough against Gannon, dropping their meet 265.620-265.305 Monday evening inside the Felix Event Center.

How It Happened: The Cougars were in for a tough fight in a rematch of last year's NCAA semifinal, and the second-ranked Golden Knights came to play, winning three of the four compulsory heats and opening up a lead of nine-tenths of a point, 37.7-36.8.  Azusa Pacific would claw their way back into the meet with a pair of wins in the acro event, making up most of the deficit with a 0.7-point win in the newly-synchronized 6-element heat and pulling within a tenth of a point.  Gannon would respond with a perfect 10 in the synchronized pyramid heat.  While the Cougars put up at least a 9.70 in all three heats, Gannon won the event and stretched the lead back to four-tenths at intermission, 95.05-94.65.

Gannon again added to their lead in the toss event, winning two of the three heats and stretching their advantage to a full point.  The Cougars won four of the six tumbling heats, but the margin of the Golden Knights' wins in the other two allowed them to take a lead of 1.325 points into the team event.  While the Cougars were able to win the team event with a score of 85.93, the margin was not quite enough to overcome the deficit.

By the Numbers: Jacie Van de Zilver and Sarah Lang put up the Cougars' highest scores of the night, with each recording a score of 9.85 on their respective tumbling pass.  That matched the 9.85 Azusa Pacific earned in the open pyramid heat.  Azusa Pacific still leads the all-time series against Gannon, 3-2.  This was the closest margin the Cougars have had in an acro meet since a 0.31-point victory over Quinnipiac in 2018.  The Cougars have averaged 267 points per meet while opening against the second- and fifth-ranked teams in the country.

Up Next: Azusa Pacific (0-2) will look to break into the win column for the first time in 2023 when they embark on a road trip to East Texas Baptist on March 9th.  The meet will take place at 6:00 p.m. Central (4:00 p.m. Pacific)