There were important questions hanging in the air before No. 4 Oregon acrobatics and tumbling’s (3-1) senior night meet against No. 5 Mary Hardin-Baylor on Friday night. How would the first half look after a shaky meet a week ago? Could the Ducks finally lay down a mistake-free team event? Could tumbling continue to buoy Oregon’s second half? 

The Ducks answered them all with confidence in a 19.175-point blowout win that closed their home slate. Here’s what we learned from the Ducks’ win over the Cru:

The reset worked

Oregon struggled last week in the first half against Gannon, and head coach Taylor Susnara spent the week of practice emphasizing mental toughness and “staying present,” she said after the UMHB meet. 

Susnara highlighted the Cru as a particularly strong first-half program, and the Ducks subsequently came out rolling — a strong sign that this team can bounce back from setbacks with the pressure on. The only chance for a similar event came after the Ducks’ loss to Baylor, but that was separated by a bye week — and Oregon didn’t perform well immediately afterward.

The Ducks performed much better against the Cru in compulsories despite just a marginally better (.150 more than against Gannon) score. They compounded it, too, with an acro event that finished a substantial 2.45 points better than the week before.

Part of the acro success was the introduction of a new seven-element skill — Bella Swarthout and Bethany Glick debuted a slide-to-split skill that is new to Oregon’s acro event, but not to those two. It’s been a staple of the Ducks’ team event this season, and Glick said afterward that she felt the hand-to-hand press handstand that she performs is “really well controlled” — exactly what the Ducks needed after the frustrating event a week ago.

Tumbling is this team’s strongest event

Despite the first-half success, it’s becoming increasingly evident that this team’s greatest strength is tumbling. Last week, this section read, “Tumbling might be this team’s strongest event.”

It’s no longer a question.

Oregon throws down 10.0 start values in all six heats — impressive not only because of the across-the-board difficulty but also because athletes cannot compete in multiple synchronized or multiple solo pass heats. That means that Oregon has nine athletes who can compete maximum-difficulty passes. 

Very few programs can do that. It was evident against UMHB, where the Ducks had a 6.95-point start value advantage in the heat. It’ll be matched when Oregon gets to the sharp end of its season, but both the difficulty and the quality are there for the Ducks. It’s undoubtedly their greatest strength.

The real test begins now

Oregon has had about as good of a home start as it could realistically have hoped for. The Ducks won three of four, and kept it close until the end against Baylor. Save for an unlikely upset of the champs, it couldn’t have gone much better for Susnara and Oregon.

Now, though, the real challenge begins. The Ducks go on the road in an unconventional season structure that sees them finish the regular season with three consecutive away meets. That’s difficult enough without the pressure to immediately succeed on the road.

There’s no margin for error, either. All three of Oregon’s upcoming opponents were ranked within the top eight in preseason — including the top two teams in the nation. These aren’t easy meets for the Ducks; they’ll be hard-fought contests.

That’s why the timing matters, too. Oregon’s meets have been relatively well-spaced up to this point: weekly on Fridays or Saturdays with a week off after the Baylor meet. Now, the Ducks will compete two meets in a week, against No. 2 Quinnipiac and No. 8 Iona, for the first time this year before an eight-day layoff and a trip to No. 1 Baylor closes the year. It’ll be a physical test — more than any they’ve faced yet this year.

This is proving time for a program that has time and again struggled to get over the hump. It’s similarly structured to the schedule the Ducks would face in a potential NCATA Championship run: closely-spaced meets against top-quality teams in unfamiliar gyms.

The Ducks can’t afford many slips — now more than ever. Every meet matters, and for all of the strength that they’ve shown at home, it’s still to be shown whether it’ll show up on the road.

It starts next Sunday, when Oregon faces Quinnipiac. The meet is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time.