Baylor acrobatics and tumbling team handed No. 2 Oregon its first loss of the season on Sunday at the Ferrell Center after outscoring the Ducks 279.935-274.450.
Baylor swept Oregon last year, twice in the regular season and once in the championship meet give Baylor its first NCATA National Championship.
“For us [Sunday’s meet] is just another stepping stone,” said head coach Felicia Mulkey. “We have so much more we can do and so much more we can offer. It’s really just the second meet.”
Although it was only the Bears’ second meet, they not only improved on their own record (2-0), but they set a new attendance record (1,551). The Bears previously broke the attendance record last season with 1,453 at the Ferrell Center.
Both Mulkey and junior top/base Kiara Sturm said the attendance was something special.
“The crowd was amazing.” Junior top Kiara Sturm said. “They were really loud and it was incredible to have that energy to get [us] going, especially during team routine to finish it out, was unreal.”
In the first half of the meet, Baylor only scored 37.25 in the compulsory event while Oregon scored 37.50.
The team came back to take the acro event, but Oregon took the pyramid event, outscoring Baylor 29.20-28.90.
Although Baylor lost two of the three events, the Bears led going into the half with a score of 94.750-94.550.
The team came back to take the toss event overall but struggled during tumbling.
The quad team of senior Kalee Garvin, senior Courtney Pate, sophomore Shayla Moore and freshman Kaylee scored the lowest of out the six tumbling teams, while open team of Lauren Sturm could not finish and scored 8.600 compared to Oregon’s 9.750.
“The whole team just pulled together in the end after we had the stumble in tumbling,” Mulkey said. “They decided they weren’t going to lose this and I was really proud of them.”
The crowd ignited during the last event of the meet, team routine, as Baylor dominated with a score of 99.360-95.700, sealing their victory over Oregon.
Their next meet will be at the Ferrell Center on March 6 at 1 p.m. against Alderson-Broaddus University.
