HONOLULU — No. 7 Hawai'i Pacific University was neck-to-neck with No. 1 Baylor until half time before the defending national champions pulled away for a 284.190-277.355 win on Tuesday night at Moanalua Gym.

The Sharks (0-2) put up some impressive heats early of their second meet of the season, while the Bears (5-0) held strong all the way through.

The Sharks held tight with the defending national champions in the Compulsory round putting up 38.55 against the Bears 38.75 tying them in the Acro and Tumbling heats at 9.50 and 9.30 respectively.
 
HPU topped Baylor in the Acro event 29.65-29.60 with senior Ashley Thomas of Springfield, Ore./Thurston, senior Kiana Roosevelt of Phoenix, Ariz./Xavier College Prep, and senior Joely Smith of Wilmington, N.C./Ashley passing over the Bears with a 9.90 in the 5-element heat.
 
The Sharks built on that with two more heat wins in the Pyramid putting up scores of 9.90 in the Inversion heat compared to Baylor's 9.85. In the Synchronized heat, HPU threw up a 9.85 while the Bears put up 9.75. The downfall came in the third heat when the Bears put up their second 10.00 score of the evening ending the event 29.60-29.35.
 
Going in to halftime, HPU was down 97.95-97.55, just a 0.40 difference.
 
In the Toss event, the Bears showed their claws scoring 29.50 out of their 30.00 points possible whereas the Sharks posted 28.40 out of 29,20 point possible.
 
With low start values in the Tumbling event, the Sharks fell in all but two of the heats. A Baylor mishap in the Trio pass allowed sophomores Peyton Smith of Waco, Texas/Midway, Arianna Balogh of Windsor, Calif./Maria Carrillo, and Amanda Dees of Gainesville, Ga./Chestatee to take the heat 8.15-8.05. Junior All-American Mikayla Garland of Lathrop, Calif./Lathrop threw up a near perfect Aerial pass with a score of 9.90 over the Bears.
 
Despite multiple faults in Baylor's Team event, they were still able to pick up 100.29 of their 109.04 possible points. The Sharks came in with a lower starting value of 104.68 and actually saw fewer deductions in their 97.53 final score.

After all the smoke had cleared, the Sharks found themselves at the feet of their starting value difficulties. Throughout the entire meet they saw 12.23 points deducted from their start values while the Bears actually saw more deductions at 14.65 from their start values.
 
The Sharks will be back at Moanalua Gym on Friday for their Senior Night event against Fairmont State in the final home meet of the season. The scheduled start time is 7:00 p.m.