The No. 2 Oregon Ducks (2-0) defeated the No. 3 Quinnipiac Bobcats, 268.605 to 264.775, Sunday afternoon at the People’s United Center in Hamden, Connecticut for Oregon’s first road trip of the season.
After losing to the Bobcats for the first time in eight years last season, Oregon’s victory improves their all-time record over Quinnipiac to 12-2. Today’s meet also marked the fourth year in a row the Bobcats opened their season with a loss.
Quinnipiac began the meet by edging out the Ducks 38.75 to 38.55 in the compulsory event. Both teams earned perfect-10s in the toss event and tied in the pyramid event with scores of 9.90. However, the Bobcat’s 9.25 score in the tumbling event was just enough to surpass Oregon.
The Ducks took over the lead by beating the Bobcats in two of the three heats of the acro event.
In the pyramid event, Oregon scored better than Quinnipiac in both the synchronized and open heats. This allowed the team to create some distance in the team scores, entering intermission with a lead of 95.50-92.15.
The two teams returned to the mat and tied the toss event, each scoring 28.65. Oregon held on to the lead, which was now 124.15 to 121.50, going into the fifth event.
Oregon posted better scores in all but one of the six heats of the tumbling event. The Ducks posted the highest score of the event with a 9.750 in the duo heat, but fell to the Bobcats in the 6-Element heat, 9.450 to 9.350.
Both teams had brief moments of struggle in the team event. During Oregon’s performance, a couple of athletes fell after attempting on-ground flips, while later one of Oregon’s base struggled to keep a pyramid from collapsing. On the opposing side, two of Quinnipiac’s pyramid’s were not able to complete the stunt and forced the women to dismount early.
Despite the mishaps, the Bobcats won the team event with a score of 90.05 to improve their team score to 264.775. But, it wasn’t enough to catch up to Oregon’s final team score of 268.605, which gave the Ducks the meet victory.
Oregon returns home this week to host Arizona Christian at Matthew Knight Arena at 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Follow Maggie Vanoni on Twitter: @maggie_vanoni
