The Frostburg State University Acrobatics and Tumbling team traveled to Hamden, Connecticut on a rainy Saturday afternoon to compete against Quinnipiac University at M&T Bank Arena. Despite both team’s best efforts and the final score being only 6.985 points apart, Quinnipiac was able to pull out a victory.

This matchup was predicted to be a tight one between the two Bobcat teams. The first set of the NCATA championship rankings came out this past week, ranking Quinnipiac as No. 4  and Frostburg State as No. 6.

The first event, the Compulsory event, went Quinnipiac’s way. Frostburg State put up a total score of 36.3 and Quinnipiac put up a score of 37.2, spreading them out by only nine tenths of a point.

Frostburg State’s pyramid group was the real stand out of this event, putting up a near perfect individual score of 9.9 out of 10 points.

The second event was the Acro event, with Frostburg State squeezing out a victory in this event. Despite Quinnipiac’s error in the first heat of this event, the Bobcats were still able to stay on top of the overall standings, leading by .65 going into the Pyramid event.

The Pyramid event was the next event up in the meet, and both teams made their best efforts at perfect scores. Every score from each of these teams in each of the heats in this event were near perfect. Frostburg State put up a 9.95 in heat three of the pyramid event.

Although Frostburg State won the Acro event and the Pyramid event, Quinnipiac still had the lead at the half, leading by six tenths of a point.

It was time for both teams to step it up a notch if they wanted their team’s outcome to be a victory, and Quinnipiac amped it up in the Toss event.

“I told them that the second half is ours, but we have to hold onto it first of all,” Quinnipiac head coach Mary Ann Powers said. “We want to raise our scores, so we can move up in the bracket.”

The home team Bobcats came out of the locker room strong in the Toss event, winning the event and putting up a total score of 27.70, which extended their lead to just under a point.

Quinnipiac did the same in the Tumbling events, expanding its lead to 3.125 points. Junior Farrah Chernov put up at 9.65 in the aerial pass to help her team lengthen its lead.

The final event was the Team event and Quinnipiac excelled in this event. This event, alone, put the Bobcats up by 3.86 points, which allowed them to take the overall victory with a score of 267.785 to Frostburg State’s 260.800.

It was also Senior Day for Quinnipiac with seven seniors on their roster. This victory allowed for the seniors to go out with a bang on their Senior Day. The Acrobatics and Tumbling team honored seniors Kyra McHenry, Francine Vaughn, Bri Marks, Nia Akins, Nicolette Tianga and Grace Rogers, as well as graduate student Bella Pierce.

“It’s definitely crazy,” said Pierce. “You spend so much time with these girls on the mat. I’m sad, happy, mixed emotions all around.”

Quinnipiac University will be back in action on April 14 as the Bobcats are set to take on Caldwell University at M&T Bank Arena at 6 p.m.