Oregon acrobatics and tumbling received its first loss of the season Saturday afternoon in its first meeting of the season against long time rival, the Baylor Bears.
The two teams’ first competition went down in Waco, Texas, giving Baylor home court advantage to kick off the first of two meetings between the Ducks and the Bears. In the end, the Bears overcame the Ducks with a total score of 284.725 to 280.830.
The Ducks beat Baylor in the first compulsory event with a score of 9.80 to 9.75. Oregon also took the pyramid event with a perfect score of 10 to beat Baylor’s 9.95.
The Bears would take the next two compulsory events, helping them take the overall compulsory section 39.40 to 39.20.
In the acro category, the two teams went back-and-forth once again with Baylor taking the first and third event, and the Ducks taking the second in between. The Bears would take that event as well, increasing its total to 69.05 to 67.70.
The Ducks found momentum in the pyramid section, taking two of the three events, and putting up a perfect 10 in the open event. However, the Ducks would remain trailing going into halftime 98.85 to 97.40.
Following the halftime break, Baylor and Oregon looked to be performing evenly. The Bears and the Ducks scored dead even in the toss event, but Baylor increased its lead to 128.20, with the Ducks close behind at 126.75.
Oregon lost significant ground in the tumbling portion of the night, putting up a score of 55.55, being two less than that of Baylor. Following the tumbling event, the totals were Baylor with 185.975 and Oregon with 182.300.
More of the same continued in the team event. Baylor posted an impressive 98.75 to overcome the Ducks 98.53.
The Ducks will see Baylor again in April in Eugene with a home mat advantage.
Oregon does not face another opponent until March 11 when it faces Quinnipiac and Gannon in the only tri-meet of the season in Eugene.