EUGENE, Ore. – The No. 3-ranked Gannon University Acrobatics & Tumbling team enjoyed making history so much on Thursday night they did it again on Friday night—defeating No. 2 Azusa Pacific in the NCATA National Championship semifinals, 267.345-262.245. The Knights storm into Saturday night's title meet versus No. 1 Baylor University, the six-time defending champion, after earning the program's first-ever pair of postseason victories in the quarterfinals and semifinals.
 
With the win in the semis, Gannon avenges an earlier loss in 2022 to Azusa Pacific—back on March 1 in a tri-meet with Hawaii Pacific—that turned out to be only blemish on the Golden Knight's otherwise perfect record. Gannon has rattled off six consecutive wins after that setback and improves its 2022 record to 10-1, including eight victories over ranked opponents, which is also a program-best mark.
 
As they did in the quarterfinals, the Knights led wire-to-wire in the semifinals, opening up with a 37.725-35.500 lead after the Compulsory Event thanks in part to a miscue by Azusa Pacific in the tumbling heat, costing them nearly a point-and-a-half. The Cougars did recover in the Acro Event, actually outscoring Gannon 29.350-28.850, but that would be the last event they would claim. The Golden Knights continued to perform at a consistently high level in Pyramid, finishing with two heat scores above 9.8 and a total event score of 29.400-28.875 to close out the first half.
 
Gannon also continued its pattern of getting stronger after halftime, dialing up a 28.725-28.425 advantage in the Toss Event and then rattling off 55.425-54.725 in the Tumbling Event, including an impressive 9.825 in the 6-Element Pass before ending the meet with another event win in Team, 87.220-85.370.
 
The Knights face a tough test in the title tilt versus the Baylor Bears, a team that routinely scores above 280.000 and has claimed six consecutive NCATA titles. The two institutions have faced each other five times (all Baylor victories), most recently on March 3, 2020 by a margin of 290.650-280.665, with Gannon's score in that meet the highest the program has ever achieved.
 
The Bears have also bounced Gannon from the NCATA National Tournament quarterfinals three times—in 2019, 2017, and 2016—and defeated No. 4 Quinnipiac University in this year's semifinals by a score of 273.600-269.160 to advance. The NCATA National Championship meet between No. 1 Baylor University and No. 3 Gannon University is scheduled for Saturday, April 30 at 10:00 p.m. ET and can be watched on ESPN+ here.
 
Additionally, the NCATA individual event finals also take place on Saturday (beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET), with Gannon competing in 11 of the 15 total events. Those finals can also be viewed on ESPN+ beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET here.