Change dominated Oregon acrobatics and tumbling’s 2025 season where it finished as the national runner-up and grabbed a trio of event titles. After adding a second assistant coach in Jacie Van de Zilver before the season, it integrated several true freshmen — including solo passes and an all-freshmen five-element acro, debuting all-new skills in the process. What didn’t change, though, was an inability to push past Baylor University, whom it hasn’t beaten since 2021. 

In 2026, the Ducks will face change again. They’ll have to replace key senior starters, add another new assistant in former Gannon University athlete Ashley Fallgren and figure out how to beat the Bears. Succeed, and they’ll claim the final NCATA National Championship before the sport transitions to NCAA Championship status in 2027.

With an eye on the 2026 season, The Daily Emerald looked back at the major storylines of Oregon’s 2025 campaign:

Oregon set records in its opening meet as freshmen shone for the first time

Morgan State University wasn’t the toughest opponent, but Oregon rolled regardless in its first meet of the season, at home against the Bears. The Ducks scored their most points (281.205) since 2021, and did it with new contributors all over the floor. 

It was quiet when Oregon acrobatics and tumbling freshmen Angelica Martin and Cassidy Cu jogged on.

Their skill was loud enough.

On two of @OregonAcroTumb‘s newest athletes, their new skill, and how it came together:https://t.co/TZd1cra8Cq

— Owen Murray (@OwenMurraySEA) March 12, 2025

Martin, Cu, Willingham and Alvarado will return as sophomores for the 2026 season — where Oregon head coach Taylor Susnara often says her athletes make the biggest jump year-over-year.

Success on the road set up late-season wins

Spring break was spent on the East Coast, where the Ducks took on two top-six teams in No. 2 Quinnipiac University and No. 6 Iona University over a span of six days. A 272.380-271.165 win over the Bobcats was Oregon’s narrowest of the 2025 season; it wasn’t close to perfect, either, as the Ducks dropped four events but pulled out a victory in team. Victory over the Gaels was more comfortable (270.630-257.370), but that was also in part because of the difference in start value between the two teams.

Regardless, the Ducks were 2-1 on the road in 2025, with their only loss coming against No. 1 Baylor on the final day of the regular season. They won’t spend more than a meet at a time away from Matthew Knight Arena in 2026 — they open the season away at Missouri State University on Feb. 8 before visiting Baylor on Feb. 28 and Hawaii Pacific University on March 25. Oregon’s only back-to-back home meets come March 6 and 15 against Gannon University and Iona.

That success comes in handy, though, in Azusa, California, where the Ducks expect to head for a week in April to compete in the NCATA National Championship. The format is often cited by coaches as difficult due to the rapid-fire schedule in a relatively unfamiliar environment, but that’s exactly where Oregon shined last season.

Winless against the champs

For all that success, Oregon was still unable to best Baylor over six events in 2025. Through three meets — a home-and-away series and their meeting in the NCATA National Championship — just 25 points separated the two teams through 18 total events.

After the first loss, Susnara talked about mental strength, and where she felt it lacked. The Ducks suffered a fall in the acro portion of the team event that took away an opportunity to capitalize on a Baylor tumbling step-off. 

“I think that we let a little bit of the nerves get to us, just at the end,” Susnara said after that meet.  

The second loss featured significant success, too: Oregon posted a new season-high in points (283.305), two 9.90 scores in the acro event and a perfect-10 in the open pyramid. Baylor, though, put up five total 10.0 scores between the acro and pyramid events to narrow the margin for error to nil. Even Oregon’s best team event score since 2018 wasn’t enough.

The championship meet was far lower-scoring than either of the regular-season meetings. Both teams suffered significant falls throughout the meet and finished the meet with their worst team event scores of the season. Again, it was a lack of ability to take advantage of mistakes that rendered the Ducks unable to win their first meet against the Bears in five seasons.

Of course it was these two.

No. 1 Baylor prevails in @theNCATA title meet over No. 2 Oregon. The Bears, now 10-time reigning champions, write themselves into history with a third victory over the Ducks this season.

How it happened, for @DailyEmerald:https://t.co/63GRaypbgt

— Owen Murray (@OwenMurraySEA) April 27, 2025

They’ll meet at least two times in 2026. Oregon hosts Baylor on April 6, the final day of the regular season, in a meet that could be for the top-overall postseason seed.

Oregon travels to face Missouri State on Feb. 8. The meet is scheduled for 1 p.m. Pacific Time.