The Chelsea Shaw era at Oregon is off to a good start.
In Oregon’s first meet since losing former head coach Felecia Mulkey to Baylor, the Ducks crushed past Azusa Pacific 281.480 – 275.100.
“I was very proud of our team tonight,” Shaw told GoDucks.com. “We definitely have lots of room for improvement, but for the first meet of the season, they executed everything the way we wanted them to.”
For the third consecutive meet – dating back to last season – Oregon traveled to Azusa Pacific. Azusa Pacific ended Oregon’s 25-meet winning streak last year before Oregon traveled back to Azusa for the national championship tournament. Oregon beat Azusa in the finals and won it’s fourth consecutive national title.
In Wednesday’s meeting, Azusa hung with Oregon for the majority of the meet.
In the compulsory event, the Ducks took a slim 38.8 – 38.65 lead. Both teams scored a 29.1 in acro, the second event, to keep the Oregon lead at .15 points. 
After another slim advantage in the pyramid event (.35 points), Oregon headed into halftime with a 97.5 – 97.0.
Shaw told GoDucks that the first half lead wasn’t reason to get complacent.
“After halftime we knew we had to keep executing to finish the meet out strong,” Shaw said. “Really, we just wanted to do what we had practiced: no matter what, fight to the finish.”
Oregon increased its lead in the toss and tumbling events to take a 182.25 – 178.55 lead into the team routine. 
In the team routine, Oregon scored a 99.23 to clinch the victory and give the Ducks their highest season-opening total score since 2012.
The Ducks will have a lengthy break before Concordia (Wisconsin) visits Matthew Knight Arena on Feb. 21.
Follow Joseph Hoyt on Twitter @JoeJHoyt