March 24, 2011
Photo Gallery 
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
The top-ranked Maryland competitive cheer team won the final event Thursday night to take a 287.930 to 286.380 win over No. 2 Oregon. To take the victory, the Terrapins (7-0) notched the highest team routine score of any team this year, 107.420, as well as their highest meet total this season.
"The biggest aspect of that team routine was the energy the girls gave every element. The partner stunts were flawless," head coach Jarnell Bonds said. "The opening pyramid was the strongest element of the routine and they built off of it. The crowd was screaming from that point on. The girls fed off the crowd to execute, but we have experience going to battle against other teams."
"We're proud because we keep improving every meet and to go into a meet with so much hype around it, to keep our goals of beating our scores and beating our team routine score, that's what's really important to us. It means we need to keep working harder if we want to remain on top."
The Ducks (5-1) led through the first five events of the meet, though the Terrapins won three events total. Oregon took a 180.680 to 180.510 lead into the team routine event.
Maryland competed its routine first and performed a clean routine. Next, Oregon suffered through stunt and tumbling errors.
The Ducks took the early lead in the first event, compulsories. They maintained the advantage through the second event, stunts, as they won that round 29.250 to 28.470.
"Lauren Shannon, senior Samantha Johnson, senior Megan Salvatore and Karissa DePalma opened us with a solid stunt performance. They built confidence for the flyers that follow," Bonds said.
The Terps won the pyramid event just before halftime, 29.250 to 28.55. Oregon led 97.590 to 97.310 at the break.
The Ducks narrowly pulled out the basket toss round, 29.420 to 29.070, coming out of halftime. The Terps won the fifth event, tumbling, 54.130 to 53.670 to cut the Ducks' lead going into the final event. It was the Terps' highest tumbling score of the year.
"Brooke Grohol's running tumbling passes were really strong. She missed some practice time this week, so she stepped in today and pulled through for the team," Bonds said.
Maryland also celebrated Senior Night Thursday. Seniors Arielle Brown, Amanda Bruno, Erin Cahill, Season Daugherty, Samantha Ford, Samantha Johnson, Kaitlyn Letourneau, Megan Salvatore and Joanna Venezia were all honored Thursday night.
"When we walked out, it was emotional because I was looking at the seniors who were once recruits and are now the foundation or our program. This was a fun night for them to keep up the energy for the team. They gave a jolt to the team and we knew we would fight hard for the seniors," Bonds said.
The Terrapins will close out the regular season at No. 5 Quinnipiac (1-4) Saturday at 11 a.m. NCATA Nationals will be held at Oregon April 7-9.
-Terps- 