After No. 4 Oregon acrobatics and tumbling head coach Taylor Susnara told media on Friday that she’d “be lying” if she said that the program’s goal wasn’t a national championship, the expectations inside Matthew Knight Arena for the Ducks’ opener were sky-high.

Oregon paid it off in a historic way.

The Ducks put up a stunning 281.205 points to claim victory over the Morgan State Bears, who scored 256.095. Oregon’s total was the highest it has scored in a meet since a 2021 meet against Baylor, and the most it has put up in a season opener since 2015. A team event which exceeded any the Ducks offered up last season, plus the debuts of several freshmen, were a wave as Oregon never trailed and eased past its opponent to open the season with a win.

“I’m ecstatic,” Susnara said postmeet. “We haven’t had that high of a score in quite a few years, and so even with two falls [in the tumbling event], it shows we have a lot of room to improve.”

Compulsory:

Susnara picked out her program’s compulsory events — basic skills executed by both teams — as one of its strongest events. Morgan State showed that it belonged, though. The Bears set the bar with a confident offering through four heats.

The Ducks, though, presented absolute security. Barely a stray step in the first event found less than two total points of deductions from a possible 40, including a 9.8 mark in compulsory acro — more than any score they posted last year. 

Stoicism on the mat turned to instant jubilation as the athletes in yellow sprinted off the mats.

Score: Oregon 38.450 – 37.200 Morgan State

Acro:

Separation began to seep into the meet in the second event.

Oregon’s acro event is one to watch this year. Susnara sent out two freshmen — Angelica Martin and Cassidy Cu — in the Ducks’ five-element acro heat. She was confident in both in her preseason press conference on Friday, where she said, “They’re awesome. I trust them, 100 percent.”

Her faith was well-placed.

The two put up a strong score of the event with a stunning heat in which Cu, the top, arched into a midair backbend before Martin, the base, slid into a split. The judges awarded it a 9.650, but the skill is one to keep an eye on in 2025.

“Two freshmen, right out of the gates…acro event is a hard event to go out there, especially your first time ever competing at a collegiate meet,” Susnara said. “They did fantastic. We had a little hiccup — I don’t even know if most could tell — but they recovered super well and so I’m proud of them.”

Morgan State struggled with stability in its acro heats. Bears top Mia Taylor could barely stay in each position for the required three seconds, and they paid for it on the scoresheet: a 26.350 mark that was 2.600 points less than Oregon.

Neither team blinked with a fall, but the Ducks began to ease ahead into a 3.85 point lead.

Score: Oregon 67.400 – 63.550 Morgan State

Pyramid:

Another of the events which Susnara highlighted as an initial strength, the Ducks proved her right in the pyramid event. Mid-base Bella Swarthout and top Bethany Glick have obvious chemistry — they competed together throughout 2024, and their inversion pyramid earned a 9.900 for the Ducks.

The gap between the two programs became evident again in the synchronized pyramid, where the Bears struggled to successfully complete and match all of their skills — they needed two attempts to raise one of their tops. The Ducks, meanwhile, posted a 9.600 in the event — their lowest score of an event where they also scored 9.650 and 9.700s in the inversion and open pyramids, respectively.

Morgan State performed a first-of-its-kind inversion pyramid in the first heat, and earned a 9.900 in the open pyramid, but it wasn’t enough to earn it a win in the event or a halftime lead.

Score: Oregon 97.050 – 91.700 Morgan State

Toss:

The Ducks didn’t post a season-best score lower than 9.700 in the toss event last year, and that continued into 2025, where Oregon earned two 9.7s and a 9.75 to hold onto the lead. Two tops, Rachel Furlong and Haley Ellis, competed their first-ever tosses in the position and scored a 9.700 in the synchronized toss for the Ducks.

Morgan State, meanwhile, struggled to build on a strong pyramid event with an 26.100, and couldn’t claw closer to their opponents  — the gap grew from 5.350 to 8.400 points.

Score: Oregon 126.200 – 117.800 Morgan State

Tumbling:

The final of Susnara’s handpicked strengths, the tumbling events are where Oregon can shine and separate from opponents.

Notable was the debut of freshman Morgan Willingham, who competed alongside Furlong in the duo pass and earned a 9.500 and a big two-handed high five from Susnara at the end of the mat. Willingham also debuted her solo pass — a 9.850 which was Oregon’s highest since a 2024 meet at Hawaii Pacific University.

Oregon tumbler Haley Ellis didn’t complete her landing and underrotated a difficult 10.0 value trio pass, where the Ducks scored 8.550. Ellis, who missed the entire 2024 season with injury, competed throughout on Saturday. Another fall plagued the Ducks in the quad pass, where junior Shea Barnes couldn’t make her landing and scored just an 8.350.

“For Haley, she is coming back after an Achilles injury and she has been so consistent in practice,” Susnara said. “In that moment [after Ellis fell], it’s really just an ‘Are you okay?’ and ‘Shake it off.’ It was an off rep…we’ve got to leave it there.”

The Ducks recovered some points in the solo passes, where freshman Briya Alvarado debuted a solo aerial pass which scored a 9.725. Ellis, too, recovered to score 9.725 in the six-element heat and preserve the Oregon lead.

“Briya and Morgan came in really, really good,” Susnara said. “Our goal, obviously, is to recruit really talented student-athletes, but to prepare them when they get here — it’s repetition, it’s how to manage your emotions under that pressure. Both of them are pretty low-key in general, so I think they really just did a good job today in turning it on when they needed to.”

Score: Oregon 182.025 – 170.825 Morgan State

Team:

Three major falls in the team event left Morgan State with an inability to climb the mountain they’d built with earlier deductions. The Bears, through a high-energy event, scored 85.320.

A new team event for Oregon scored a record-breaking 99.180 — the most a Ducks team has posted in the event since 2021. 

“We hit nearly everything [ event],” Susnara said. “We had a minor thing in our acro two — they came down a little bit early, but they were able to finish that skill through. Starting at a 108 and getting a 99 isn’t too bad for the first meet.”

Final Score: Oregon 281.205 – 256.095 Morgan State

That 2021 meet which still stands as a program record in the team and overall categories is a notable one for another reason, too.

It was the last time Oregon beat No. 1, reigning-national champion Baylor. The Bears come to Eugene next week. If the Ducks are to do what they haven’t been able to in nearly four years, it’ll take a performance on par with what they did back then.

On Saturday, they showed that they could.