Duquesne Acro & Tumbling Produces Program Best Score In Loss To #1 Baylor

The Duquesne Acrobatics & Tumbling Team set a season high in points, breaking several program records in a 275.030-256.210 setback to #1 Baylor Tuesday night at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

“I’m really proud of the young women that went out and competed today,” Duquesne coach Michaela Soper opened. “Going against #1 in the nation, that’s a really tough opponent and honestly, they leveled up and played up to our opponent and I couldn’t be happier with the results of today’s competition.”

Duquesne (3-2) beat Baylor in two separate heats, first in pyramid heat three 9.75-9.70, with the Dukes dropping its starting value back .10. The second was with the tumbling trio which featured Clare Frantti, Sienna Johnson and Sarah Golie who had an 8.35 on an 8.75 starting value, to best Baylor’s 8.3.

“Our open pyramid was one we had an injury at the last meet, so we were really hopeful she was going to be out there to compete,” stated Soper. “For her to overcome that, do that today and beat Baylor, I mean that’s incredible. That was definitely a really cool moment. For trio to happen as well, we were really over the moon. Just happy to be building off the foundation that’s already been set and then continuing to grow, especially this time in season. They’re in a really good spot as far as peaking.”

The dropped start value for the pyramid heat three was not the only dropped start value, an intentional decision Soper made to focus her team on being clean especially with #14 LIU awaiting on Sunday.

It was her belief that cleaning things up can be rewarding. Two of those dropped start values resulted in better scores, which she believes meant that the decision paid off.

Duquesne started with a season-best 36.55 in the compulsory event, trailing Baylor by 1.3 after the first of six events. The pyramid heat was the Dukes best score of the four heats at 9.55 on a 10.0 start value.

A season high in compulsory tumbling!

After one event:
#15 Dukes – 36.55
#1 Baylor – 37.85 pic.twitter.com/WPjnGqQobe

— Duquesne Acrobatics & Tumbling (@DUQAcroTumb) March 11, 2025

Duquesne continued to season highs with three more in all three heats of the acro event posting 9.65, 8.35 and 9.50 scores.

9.65 in 5-Element Acro 🔥

The first of 3⃣ season highs in the acro event!

After 2 Events:
#15 Dukes – 66.95
#1 Baylor – 64.05 pic.twitter.com/VY7aOoZAd9

— Duquesne Acrobatics & Tumbling (@DUQAcroTumb) March 11, 2025

Duquesne trailed 96.25-91.8 at halftime.

A 26.30 score in the toss event tied a season high, which included a season-best 9.2 open toss on a 9.4 start value.

Sienna Johnson flying for a season-high 9.20 open toss! pic.twitter.com/F84HRH7vG5

— Duquesne Acrobatics & Tumbling (@DUQAcroTumb) March 11, 2025

Duquesne scored a 51.5 on the tumbling event and 86.61 in the team event.

Overall, Soper believed her team displayed many encouraging signs and stepped up in ways even unseen in practice, great signs for Sunday’s meet.

“I think they’re believing in it, really believing in some of the coaching decisions,” she concluded. “It’s not easy to drop start values, they can feel defeated that way where they’re not achieving a level but ultimately to keep it clean, they went out with a totally different confidence, and I think we’ll see that confidence again against LIU. Hitting the sweet spot in season and we did find that balance which paid off for our season high.”

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