WEST LIBERTY, W. Va. –  Azusa Pacific saw their season come to a close in the quarterfinals of the 2023 NCATA National Championships, falling to sixth-seeded Limestone by barely a quarter of a point, 266.725-266.470 Thursday morning in West Virginia.

How It Happened:  The Cougars and Saints traded blows, each winning two heats in the compulsory event.  Azusa Pacific's margins in the acro and tumbling heats were larger, allowing the third-seeded Cougars to come away with a lead of just over four-tenths of a point.  Then came the acro event, where the Cougars' all-American duo of Jacie Van de Zilver and Madiha Morris went to work, putting up a 9.9 in the 5-element heat and following that up with a 9.8 in the 7-element.  Those scores allowed the Cougars to add over a full point to their lead.  Limestone would respond with a narrow edge in the pyramid event, though Azusa Pacific narrowly won the inverted pyramid heat, allowing the Cougars to head into halftime ahead by a margin of 1.4 points, 93.95-92.55.

Coming out of the break, the Cougars padded their lead by about half a point over the course of the toss event, highlighted by a 9.65 in the 450 Salto toss.  Van de Zilver teamed up with the Cougars' NCATA All-Academic Team selection, Sarah Lang, to kick off the tumbling event with a duo tumbling pass that scored six-tenths of a point higher than their Saint counterparts, and thanks to solid scores in the solo tumbling passes of Van de Zilver, Lang, and Maria Hurst, the Cougars were able to hold on for a narrow one-tenth win in the overall event, giving them a lead of just over two points heading into the team event.  But Limestone would rally in the team event to overcome that deficit, taking the final event 91.60-89.32 to advance to their first-ever semifinal.

Azusa Pacific's 2023 season ends with a record of 4-4.  The Cougars are one of only three programs, along with Baylor and Oregon, to have qualified for the national championships in every season of the sport's existence.