With a season-high meet score of 280.900, the No. 2 Oregon Ducks (4-1) edged out No. 4 Azusa Pacific Tuesday evening at the Felix Event Center in Azusa, California.
Oregon earned just a point more in the final meet scores as APU (3-1) earned a 279.875, marking the Cougars’ first loss of the season. The Ducks’ victory extends their winning streak over APU to seven-straight wins, creating a 15-1 overall record between the two programs.
The Ducks set season-high scores in both the tumbling and team events, which propelled them to win four out of the six events during the meet.
After Oregon won the compulsory event, 38.60-38.05, APU rallied and won both the acro and pyramid events. APU’s victory in each was determined by less than half a point. In the pyramid event, the Cougars outperformed the Ducks 29.35-29.30.
With their win in the first event and the thin deficits in the following two, the Ducks were able to lead 96.550-96.250 at halftime.
Starting by winning the toss event, 29.00-28.85, Oregon came back from the intermission and swept APU in the remaining three events.
Thanks to earning four season-high heat scores, which included a near-perfect score of 9.900 from senior Hannah Blair in the open pass, the Ducks put up a season-high score of 56.950 in the tumbling event.
With another season-high score in the team event, 98.40, Oregon secured the 280.900-279.875 victory over the Cougars. Tuesday’s score in the event marks the second consecutive meet the Ducks have scored a season-high in the team event (Oregon posted a then-season-high of 95.43 on March 3 against Baylor).
“The team brought the energy in the team event, and we’re extremely happy with the execution,” Oregon head coach Keenyn Won told GoDucks.com. “The team event has been our nemesis throughout the season, and tonight, the team did their jobs. … tonight definitely lit a fire for this team to continue progressing.”
Oregon will return to Eugene and take two weeks off before hosting its final home meet of the season on March 30 against APU at 5 p.m. at Matthew Knight Arena.
Follow Maggie Vanoni on Twitter: @maggie_vanoni
