In a return to the NCATA National Championship, all eyes were on the No. 4 Oregon Ducks (4-3) in their quarterfinal matchup with No. 5 Mary Hardin-Baylor (9-2). The Ducks, ranked in the top two in preseason, endured a difficult regular season to enter the postseason without the momentum of previous years. They held the lead through every event in their debut outing, though, and lived to fight another day in West Virginia.
Oregon opened up with a strong first-half performance — not something that’s always been a hallmark of its year. After winning every event in their regular season finale at Azusa Pacific University, the Ducks grabbed victory in just one of the three first-half events in West Virginia but still managed to hold a lead throughout the first half.
Notably, Oregon dropped its start value in the six-element acro heat to 9.90 points. It sat at 10 throughout each of the Ducks’ six prior meets in 2024, but with acro as one of their less prolific events, a slight drop in difficulty didn’t benefit them.
Notable in that event was a wobble in the six-element acro heat: As top Charlotte Lippa swung herself up, the base’s feet took steps back and forth as the two tried to balance. That’s a major deduction in the world of acrobatics and tumbling — and it showed. Oregon still dropped 0.9 points in that heat, and lost the event overall.
The Ducks still held a 0.1 point lead headed into the pyramid event, which has traditionally been their strongest this year. Tops Lippa and Makenna Carrion shone as Oregon turned in another solid performance, hitting the 29-point mark, but dropping the event overall.
“I think our compulsory event had little things here and there that we would’ve liked to see a little bit better,” Oregon head coach Taylor Susnara said on the ESPN+ broadcast at halftime. “The acro event [wasn’t] our best show. I was really proud of acro five and we made some adjustments to [acro heat] six.” Susnara had not seen the scores from the third event at halftime.
That loss in the pyramid event cut the Ducks’ 0.1 point lead in half headed into the second half — they only led by 0.05 — but Susnara wasn’t worried.
“I think we have a really strong second half,” Susnara said, “if we do go do what we practice.”
The Ducks grabbed a boost early in the second half as the Crusaders’ athletes incurred a major deduction in the synchronized heat of the toss event. The bases traveled while attempting to make a catch, incurring a 1.225 point penalty that Oregon took full advantage of. The Ducks swept the event — their first event win since the compulsory — and jumped into a 1.025 point lead.
Susnara also foreshadowed high start values throughout the half — except for the quad tumbling pass, Oregon reported start values of 10.00 for each tumbling event. Meanwhile, the Cru only posted an average start value of 9.42 and as low as 8.5 (in the quad pass) — nearly three full points less on offer than the Ducks’.
In the event, Mary-Hardin Baylor held strong save a step-off from senior tumbler Kensley Walters in the aerial tumbling event, but that low start value meant that they could only watch as their deficit grew. Oregon kept a grip on the lead, winning five of six heats, and headed to the team event with a 3.820 point lead and the same premise as all season long: win, and you’re in.
After a difficult team event for the Cru — multiple stumbles and travels held them back — Oregon was able to keep it together despite a fall from tumbler Selah Bell to post a subpar 83.570-point team event that nonetheless booked its place in the quarterfinal. The Ducks average around 90 points in the team event, and working a strong team event will be crucial in their semifinal.
That’ll be either a matchup with No. 8 Fairmont State or a rematch with No. 1 Baylor, kicking off at 4:00 P.M. PT tomorrow night.
