By Kevin Noonan, QBSN Staff Writer
The crowd eagerly awaited the final results of the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association semifinal meet between Quinnipiac and Azusa Pacific, and when all was said and done, the Bobcats advanced to their first ever NCATA Championship meet.
As the host, the Bobcats had a strong showing from the Bobcat faithful en route to their victory by a score of 275.030-269.945.
“The whole season, my coach was stressing that we need to get our high scores and our biggest rounds at the end of the season, we wanna progress we don’t want to be the best in the beginning we wanna carry it out,” junior Flyer Christina Lasto (Oxford, Conn.) said.
From start to finish, Quinnipiac lead the entire way and only dropped one event on the day. It was one of Quinnipiac’s strongest performances on the season and their second victory over Azusa Pacific on the year. The Bobcats’ 275.030 points was the third most points they have scored on the season.
Lasto also went on to say how the Bobcats have stressed focusing on themselves so that they do not worry where their opponents are at scoring wise.
“My coach stresses all the time that we need to focus about us, that we need to focus on ourselves, the first part of the meet we always start from the beginning, we’re even with the opponent, and after each event we just focused on ourselves” Lasto said.
Head coach Mary Ann Powers also stressed this fact that they can only control themselves on the match
“We don’t worry about anybody’s scores but our own, so if I ask them to be against themselves better make it the best meet of the year,” Powers said.
Quinnipiac managed to win the Acro round by .12 points, but head coach Mary Ann Powers said the team struggled in the event.
“The Acro rounds we always have a little bit of bobbles because we’re doing our stunts up in the air extended. I can’t change it at this point, I could bring things,” Powers said.
Despite being ranked second in the NCATA tournament, the Bobcats have maintained a humbleness about themselves, knowing that they control their own fate.
“One of our biggest things the whole week and that we learned from the first round was to stay humble, and just know that its never to late for them to catch up so you have to keep working, keep maintaining and just work as hard as you can” freshman Tumbler Demitra Germanakos (Massapequa, N.Y.) said.
After the victory, the Bobcats awaited the end of the meet between Fairmont State and the top-seeded Oregon Ducks.
No matter who the Bobcats take on, they know they are in for a test in their first championship meet.
“I think its going to be a really good competition, its going to be really close, we just really have to go back to basics from the very beginning, and just know that we’re a team, stay united, individually do your part and we’ll come together as a team,” Germanakos said.
