Acrobatics and Tumbling is a unique sport, characterized by precise timing and particular scoring. Yet, nothing unique about the sport compares to each team’s small regular-season slate, giving them limited opportunities to show out, improve and execute.
For Quinnipiac’s Acrobatics and Tumbling team, its squad competes in six meets during its regular season, spanning from Feb. to April. Yet, for years, the Bobcats have been a dominant force in collegiate acrobatics — proving that statement true this season, finishing 5-1 in the regular season.
In the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association 2026 Preseason Coaches Poll, the Bobcats were ranked No. 3, falling behind the University of Oregon and Baylor University.
And who else would the Bobcats lone loss of the regular season come at the hands of other than the Oregon Ducks?
Quinnipiac has had a tricky history against Oregon, only winning four of 17 matchups between the squads. The last time the Bobcats pulled off a victory over the Ducks was in 2024, capturing the win by a 5.020 score differential.
Against Oregon this season, the Bobcats were outscored in every event except for the toss, which the Bobcats secured a 28.90 – a score only 1.20 points more than the Ducks. In that matchup, all three tosses from the Bobcats earned a 9.60 or higher, a reflection of the Bobcats’ dominance in that event.
And that’s not unique for the Bobcats, as the toss has been a strong section of Quinnipiac’s competition all year long, finishing the season with an average score of 28.37.
Even the Bobcats’ lowest score in the toss against Long Island University March 22 remains a higher score than any of its competitors achieved all season long.
“We have a very unique part of our sport where we’ve got to get to big things, but the big things don’t matter unless we check off the little things,” Quinnipiac head coach Mary Ann Powers said in a preseason interview. “So we’ve been checking boxes for the little things.”
An area where the Bobcats have seen steady improvement throughout the regular season comes at the team event, breaking the 90-point mark in three meets this season.
Last season, the Bobcats held their own in the NCATA Semifinal against the Oregon Ducks, with the scores coming down to 178.975 for the Bobcats and 179.925 for the Ducks. With Quinnipiac being down only 0.968 points going into the team event, the Bobcats sure had a chance to topple Oregon in the last scored event. Right?
However, things can’t always go picture perfect, and while Quinnipiac finished the team event with a score of 84.62, Oregon knew what it had to do to hold its lead, earning 90.53 points in the team event.
For the Bobcats, what ended in defeat would spark motivation this season to improve and grow consistent in their team routine.
“Every single meet getting better, you know in an upwards climb per say, I think that’s really important,” Powers said.
In acrobatics and tumbling, precision is of the utmost importance across all events. Whether it be precision in the timing of stunts or execution, everything needs to be precise down to the tiniest movement of an athlete.
Precision alone is what makes acrobatics and tumbling one of the most complex and hardest sports to compete in, as one day you could hit a stunt flawlessly and the next day fall off from that height.
“It’s one thing if you can go up and hit, but you have to be able to do it pretty much perfect,” senior base/tumbler Ashleigh Dugan said in a preseason interview with The Chronicle.
As of April 7, the Bobcats remain in the No. 9 spot in the NCATA Championship Rankings. With hopes of advancing to the finals for the first time in eight years, Quinnipiac now awaits its quarterfinal opponent of the 2026 NCATA National Championship from April 23-26 in Azusa, Calif.
