AZUSA, Calif. — Oregon acrobatics and tumbling will wait another year.

The No. 2 Ducks suffered a knockout blow at the hands of No. 3 Quinnipiac University in the semifinal round of the NCATA Championships on Friday night. The 12-year gap between national titles will extend at least one more in Eugene. Losses in five of six events and a team event struggle weren’t enough to protect an early lead that shrunk heat after heat. There are still event finals in the Ducks’ future, but either Quinnipiac or No. 1 Baylor University will own the NCATA crown this season. 

“To go out and hit it with the bang, I was so proud and so happy with them,” Oregon head coach Taylor Susnara said. “And it feels good that we executed, but obviously hard to not be moving on to the next day.”

The Ducks are a solid team, and that showed more than ever as they dealt with a frustrating loss. The Daily Emerald breaks down three takeaways from the final meet of Oregon’s season:

Oregon’s best events struggled in this meet

This was the big surprise of the day. Team event has been up-and-down for the Ducks all season, and a meet-winning performance there would’ve been what they needed, but not guaranteed.

What has been close to guaranteed was the events that Oregon will likely challenge for national titles in tomorrow. Outside of compulsory pyramid, toss, tumbling, six-element acro and open pyramid, the Ducks scored lower in every heat against Quinnipiac than they did against Gannon two days ago. That includes every second-half event, where the Bobcats kept taking bites out of the Oregon lead and finished five events within a point of the Ducks.

Six-element acro, meanwhile, had a strong weekend with a pair of 8.950-or-higher scores; while it’s been an event that Oregon hasn’t been able to lean on regularly, it made a huge impact when it hit. Quinnipiac’s only real mistake of the night came in its six-element heat, and the Ducks’ advantage was generated from the 8.950 that it scored there.

In tumbling, where Oregon had a 1.7-point start value advantage on its opponent, the Ducks scored lower than 9.000 in four heats for the first time this season (again, with more judges watching in Azusa). Even despite that, Susnara’s team outscored Quinnipiac in the three group tumbling heats, where depth shone. They were outmatched in solo tumbling, though — another surprise — and didn’t score higher than 9.775 in their aerial, six-element or open passes.

Team event will come up in this discussion, and it was ultimately where Quinnipiac won this meet, but Oregon lost it when its best events weren’t at their best.

Satisfaction

That word has been a topic of discussion with Susnara over the past few weeks. She was “almost” satisfied after losing to Baylor at home on the last day of the regular season, then she was satisfied after Oregon’s quarterfinal win.

The theme after the Quinnipiac meet was one of satisfaction in difficult moments. Those words — “I’m so proud and so happy” — were what came up when Susnara talked about how she felt after the team event. Blessyn McMorris talked about how proud she was of her teammates despite a score they didn’t want.

McMorris, for her part, competed in the last meet of a five-year Oregon career and had some poignant words of satisfaction afterward.

“It has been five years of my life, but it’s been a fun five years and I wouldn’t change it for anything,” McMorris said. “I wouldn’t even change the outcome. I mean, you can’t win them all. You can’t have it all. So I think that I learned so much from this experience being a student athlete and now I’m ready to start the next chapter of my life.”

Oregon succeeded through one of the most difficult schedules in the nation and repeated adversity to put together a team that, while not enough for a win on Friday, understands what it takes to do so. This is, without a doubt, Susnara’s team with her ethos in it now, and that echoed after the loss. That message, to lose with grace, can be hard to deliver sometimes.

It wasn’t on Friday.

“Today, it wasn’t hard because I was happy with how we ended and I felt like both teams fought and deserved what they got,” Susnara said. “And other times, maybe I don’t always agree with things, and so there it’s harder to lose or win with grace, but I would say naturally, that’s kind of my aura, is just trying to stay even-keeled, no matter what happens. 

“Today, I got really emotional after and I think I just care so much. I know how much effort they put into this. We’re just always trying to be the best version of ourselves and you know, being respectful of our opponents.”

That’s a team mentality, and a good one that has them satisfied after a frustrating performance. That matters.

What did this meet mean?

Oregon was buzzing in the postmeet press conference on Thursday, and rightfully so, after it put together a team event that satisfied it for the first time this season. On Friday, the Ducks entered the team event with a slim advantage and a higher start value and couldn’t pay it off. It’s an event that has been a challenge this year, Susnara acknowledged after the meet, and the score differential against Quinnipiac (87.240-81.360) was “hard to hear in real time.”

What Oregon put on the mat yesterday, though, felt like a microcosm of the meet. From the outside, it looked strong. It wasn’t big falls that derailed the event, like the Ducks had earlier this season; it was little things — ”cleanliness,” Susnara said — that handed the Bobcats their place in the final.

No matter how much innovation happens through the other five, team event is still the key to this sport. It’s where Oregon lost all three of its meets this year; twice, against Baylor, the Ducks’ first five events kept them close and twice, in team event, they couldn’t step up. Oregon has the returning talent to turn team event into a powerhouse, but it wasn’t this season, and that’s ultimately what decided when the Ducks went home.

Those returners — a third year of the 2025 freshman class, in particular, that included Angelica Martin, Cassidy Cu, Briya Alvarado, Morgan Willingham and Carly Garcia — are a major reason why there’s reality in stepping up there next season. They’ve seen two seasons now where the Ducks’ year ended because of the team event, and they’re talented enough to help Oregon reach the next level.

The Ducks’ depth this season was a huge point in favor of that team event stepping up, too. Susnara has always been a strong developer of tumblers, and that stood out in those group tumbling heats, but Oregon battled injuries across the board and was able to replace them. Ashlyn Parlett won an NCATA Athlete of the Week award as the mid-base in the Ducks’ open pyramid in place of Bella Swarthout (season-long absence). Oregon’s tops were swapped around for injuries and tactics all season and by-and-large worked out.

If Oregon was truly going to contend for a title in Azusa, it needed a team event to rely on. It got that in the quarterfinal, but not in the semifinal, and that’s why it’s not on the mat tonight.

The Ducks will compete in event finals on Sunday at 10 a.m., with final qualifiers still to be announced.