The Ducks built an eight-point cushion with history: a best tumbling score since 2017. They doubled down, with a re-tooled team event that sealed the win. The comeback was complete.

Oregon acrobatics and tumbling (2-1) struggled in its first half after the bye week, but bounced back and cruised to victory, 276.565-263.465 with a second-half performance that was more than enough against No. 3 Gannon (2-4). Oregon, in need of a win, revamped its team event and boosted its tumbling score.

The Ducks entered Friday fully rested after their bye week followed their first loss of the year to No. 1 Baylor.

“I think we put the bye week to good use,” Oregon head coach Taylor Susnara said. “We made quite a bit of changes coming into this meet…overall, I think they executed really well.”

In search of a bounce-back victory, the Ducks were on home turf for the penultimate time this season. The next month is where it gets real: Oregon faces Nos. 5, 2, 8 and 1 in the preseason coaches’ poll, all on the road, to close its season. That’s what made Friday night a must-win for the Ducks.

Gannon struggled in its opener. Steps and missed landings in the compulsory heats were the initial signs of a team that hasn’t lived up to its third-overall ranking. 

Oregon, though, couldn’t take advantage in the event. The Ducks posted their lowest score in the event this season: 37.1, in part due to an omitted skill from freshman tumbler Morgan Willingham.

Willingham, one of the young stars of Oregon’s season, did not complete one of her skills in compulsory tumbling. The Ducks still scored 8.600, courtesy of a strong heat elsewhere.

“She just got confused with the counts and just forgot,” Susnara said.

An acro event unlike any other was the story of the first half. Oregon has posted as high as an 28.95 in the event, but struggled throughout — Ducks top Haley Ellis nearly fell in the six-element portion before senior top Bethany Glick and base Charlotte Lippa did fall on the final skill of their seven-element acro.

Gannon, though, had mighty difficulties. A fall in the six-element acro led to a 6.900 score, and additional deductions in the seven-element acro (where Gannon scored 7.600) saw them relinquish their slim, .100-point first-event lead.

The difference emerged in the first pyramid heat. Gannon completed its skill, but did not hold its inversion for the required three seconds — which resulted in a fall deduction. 

Minutes later, when Glick was struggling to push her skill into its inverted position during Oregon’s inversion pyramid, she found a second wind and pushed back into the handstand position and held their inversion for the required three seconds to avoid a fall deduction.

“[Bethany] has a lot of mental strength and a lot of body awareness,” Susnara said, “so when she’s in the air, if something’s going wrong, she’s able to feel it and fix it in real time, which is something really valuable.”

Despite a 9.900 in the open pyramid heat — where Oregon scored a perfect 10 against Baylor — the Ducks still scored a season-low 28.600 in the event — to complete a first half in which they scored season-lows in all three events. Gannon posted a 9.950 in a nearly-perfect open pyramid and won the event overall, but still trailed by 2.150 points after the half.

“I think we have a little bit more fun in the bye weeks,” Susnara said. “And so it’s not that the focus isn’t there, but it’s just a little bit of ‘We can breathe.’ Sometimes that can create a little bit of lax, even though they’re not meaning to.”

With a bounce-back necessary for both sides after difficult first halves, the Ducks answered the bell. Oregon scored a season-high 9.800 in the open toss to complete a 29.000-point toss event that was just .150 off its season high.

“We can’t change what happened in the first half,” Susnara said, “so at the end of the day, we say ‘Leave it there,’ and go zero-zero headed into the next heat, because it is what it is.”

The Knights’ tumbling event was notable for a reason off the mat: their start values. While Oregon was able to roll out 10.0 values across the board, Gannon — which lost significant tumblers to both graduation and the transfer portal in the offseason — started with 9.55, 8.75 and 8.00-point values in the first three heats.

It showed: despite a relatively solid showing in the event, Gannon scored just 53.175 while entering the event trailing by 3.050.

Oregon pushed the margin to nearly eight points ahead of the team event, with scores that combined for the program’s highest score (58.025) since 2017 despite a step off from senior Haley Ellis in the quad pass. Willingham scored 9.875 in the open pass, her best of the season.

“Morgan [Willingham], being a freshman, coming out in a solo event is a lot of pressure,” Susnara said. “After messing up in the beginning, it can create some nerves, and I think she did a really good job turning it around.”

The Knights fell multiple times in their team event, which scored 92.040, but it wouldn’t matter.

Oregon’s cushion was big enough already, but the Ducks kept pushing. Oregon made upgrades to its team event over the bye week, and had just one notable missed skill (in tumbling, from Rickelle Henderson) on its way to a 97.240 score.

“We worked really hard on it [in the bye week],” Susnara said. “All in all, I was happy with it, but I think we still have a lot of work to do.”

Oregon returns to Matthew Knight Arena for its final home meet of the regular season next Friday, against No. 5 University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.