FAIRMONT, W.Va. – The Oregon acrobatics and tumbling team recorded their second-highest score of the season and defeated Alderson Broaddus 280.875 – 273.695 in the quarterfinals of the NCATA Championships Friday night at Joe Retton Arena on the campus of Fairmont State.

The No. 3 seed Ducks used a strong second half to turn a .05 halftime lead into a convincing victory. UO will face No. 2 seed Hawai'i Pacific tomorrow in the semifinals at 12:30 p.m. (ET) to decide who advances on to the championship meet.

Meet Breakdown: Oregon opened the meet with a 37.95 in compulsories while Alderson Broaddus managed a 37.65. The Ducks earned a perfect 10 in the toss heat, giving UO their first perfect score on the season in that heat.

AB won their first event of the evening with a slight 29.50 – 29.40 victory in acro. The 29.40 was the Ducks' second-highest score on the year, but the Battlers were able to put together three clean heats (9.85, 9.90 and 9.75) to cut UO's lead down to 67.35 – 67.15.

Alderson Broaddus snuck by the Ducks again in pyramid, but only by a small margin of 29.75 – 29.60. Oregon earned a perfect 10 in the second heat – the same heat they won an individual title in yesterday – giving them their second perfect 10 on the year in that heat. AB used three scores above 9.90 to win their second and last event of the meet.

At the half, the Ducks held a miniscule 96.950 – 96.900 lead, but the best was yet to come for the four-time national champions.

UO reclaimed the momentum after the toss event, winning 28.95 – 28.70 to put a little more breathing room between themselves and the 6-seed.

With the tumbling and team event comprising of more than half of a meet's possible points, UO seized the opportunity and built an almost insurmountable lead after tumbling.

Oregon came away from the tumbling event with a 56.925 – 51.875 victory, beating the Battlers in all six heats. The Ducks' best heats came in the 6-element pass when Taylor Galvin earned a 9.875, and in the open pass when Krista Phillips produced a 9.80. All of the Ducks' heats were 9.10's or better (9.10, 9.30, 9.10, 9.75, 9.875 and 9.80).

Entering the team event, Oregon held a 182.825 – 177.475 lead that would only grow. AB went first and came away with a 96.22, and the Ducks won their fourth and final event with a 98.05, good for their third-highest team event score on the year.

Starting to Peak: Besides the compulsory event, UO had top-three scores on the season in the five other events. The Ducks looked sharp in what was a somewhat hostile, pro-Alderson Broaddus crowd with the Battlers being only 40 miles south. The Green and Yellow faithful that did make the trip to West Virginia were given a lot to cheer about with Oregon's strong performance tonight.

Looking Ahead: No. 2 seed Hawai'i Pacific took down No. 7 seed Fairmont State 274.300 – 269.155 in the other semifinal, so the Ducks will face the Sharks tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. (ET) in the semifinals. The other semifinal will include the No. 1 seed Baylor and the No. 4 seed Azusa Pacific at 10 a.m. (ET).

Quotable: Head coach – Chelsea Shaw
On competing well in a foreign environment…
“The kids thrive under pressure, they like traveling and seeing different communities, schools and programs. Fairmont is such an incredible community, they've really rallied together for these national championships, so it's been a fun environment.”

Junior – Erika Schaefer
On what it will take to win tomorrow…
“For us it will be about making a few changes and correcting some of the mistakes that we made today, and just growing. We haven't peaked yet, and I think we want to peak tomorrow and definitely even more if we make the finals. We just got to maintain and get a little better as each day goes.”

All-Americans: Last night at the NCATA Awards Banquet, Tara Lubert and Krista Phillips were named NCATA All-Americans. The honor is the fourth-consecutive All-American nod for Lubert, and the first for Phillips.

Lubert will finish her time at Oregon with four NCATA All-American honors, one Newcomer of the Year award in 2012 and one NCATA Most Outstanding Performer of the Year in 2013. Just a sophomore, Phillps already has three individual event titles and one All-American honor to her name.