By Gio Gennero | Sports Writer
No. 1 Baylor acrobatics and tumbling took down No. 2 University of Oregon by a slim margin of less than four points, 278.520-274.990 Saturday in the Ferrell Center. The Bears also recognized seven athletes as part of their Senior Night.
“They’ve [Oregon] improved since we last saw them, that’s why we do this,” head coach Felecia Mulkey said. “Let’s enjoy the competition, let’s enjoy being pushed and let’s rise to the occasion. [Our team was] glad to win but they were also like, ‘Let’s get back to work.’”
Baylor (6-0) narrowly took the Compulsory event, edging out the Ducks (3-2) by .4 points, 38.4-38. The green and gold came to compete, as it posted over nine points in all but one of the combined eight heats. This was the first time all season the Bears have dropped multiple heats in the same event, as they dropped two.
In the Acro event, Baylor cleaned things up as they swept every heat after posting all 9.9s or higher. Its lead grew to 68.15-66.5 after the first two events.
The Bears continued to gain momentum in the third event, the Pyramid. Similar to their last meet, the seven-time defending national champions performed well in this event, recording another perfect 10. They also scored a 9.95 in the inverted, a 9.85 in the synchronized and the 10 in the open. This brought their lead to 97.950-95.900.
Coming out of the halftime break, Baylor squeezed by Oregon in the Toss event, 28.9-28.55, which widened its small lead to 126.850-124.450.
In the fifth event, Tumbling, the Bears won all but a single heat where a Bear unfortunately stumbled before completing their heat. As a result, they lost their first event of the season by a score of 56.300-55.750. The green and gold still held on to a 182.600-180.750 going into the final event.
In the team event, Baylor won 95.92-94.24 to seal its second regular season victory over the Ducks.
Up next, the Bears travel to Hawaii to face off against Hawaii Pacific University at 5 p.m. Sunday in Honolulu.
