Matthew Knight Arena was dark and Nicole Erlichman was in the tunnel, waiting. Her arms were wrapped around Kisa Chapman’s and Tara Lubert’s shoulders.

The lights flashed on, fans stood up and the Oregon fight song started playing.

For the first time this year, and the last of her Oregon career, Erlichman joined her acrobatics and tumbling teammates in the introductory, pre-meet jog around the mat. For the last time, Erlichman was in uniform, wearing her No. 33 jersey. Her left foot never touched the ground. She hung on to Chapman and Lubert throughout the jog – her left leg hanging about seven inches above the floor.

Erlichman tore her left achilles tendon twice in the matter of three months over the summer to seal a senior season that would take place outside the mat, looking in. The National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association’s Most Outstanding Athlete last year hasn’t left the team despite the career-ending injury. And on Monday night, before Oregon’s win over Azusa Pacific and Fairmont State, she ran with her teammates.

“I’ve been using them all year to lift me up,” Erlichman said.

She’s a three-time national champion coming off a season where she consistently made perfect 10s in the six-element pass. She was hand springing across the mat during a summer workout when she landed and felt her foot snap.

“My foot was kind of just flopping around,” she said.

A trip to the doctor the next day confirmed the worst. Erlichman had torn her achilles tendon. Surgery was planned and the road to recovery had started. Her sights were set on returning to compete for her senior season.

Three months later, Erlichman was walking when she felt a familiar snap. That meant another trip to the doctor, another surgery one week later.

Her father, Mark, was the first person she called. The conversation started with three words: “Don’t be mad.” Her worries disappeared when Mark told her he’d come to Eugene to be with her through the process.

Competing in 2015 was ruled out after surgery. Erlichman had two options: redshirt or retire. She decided to give up the sport she’d been competing in – through gymnastics and cheerleading, as well – for the past 15 years.

Erlichman looked ahead. She’d always wanted to be a coach. She’d seen the impact her coaches had on her and she wanted to emulate them.

Oregon coach Chelsea Shaw told Erlichman to take advantage of the situation. “She had a different view point this year than she ever did as an athlete,” Shaw said.

Over the course of the year, Erlichman has seen Shaw’s preseason words unfold. After a successful three years as an athlete at Oregon, Erlichman found she enjoyed watching her teammates get better from a new perspective.

“It made me feel like this year was worth something,” she said.

Still, in the back of her mind, Erlichman worried if she’d been a good teammate. She didn’t know the type of impact she’d had on the team.

All of her questions were answered after Monday’s pre-meet team meal.

Erlichman’s teammates told her the plan. They were going to carry her in. They showed her red heart stickers with the No. 33 scribbled on them that they placed on their left achilles tendon.

Erlichman started shaking. Then she started crying. “I was bawling like a baby,” she said.

After the national anthem had finished, Oregon athletes added some last minute warmups before the meet started. Erlichman walked to the bench where she put on her Lauren Jones remembrance t-shirt and stood with the rest of the girls who wouldn’t be competing. Erlichman watched, leaving her spot at the top right corner of the mat to help a teammate when needed.

Junior Chandler White heard the tune Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” blast from the speakers at the arena. She immediately looked at Erlichman.

Erlichman was dancing, her left foot still popped above the ground. “When I think of that song, I think of her,” White said. “She gets down to that song.”

Fellow senior Erika Schaefer calls Erlichman a “positive light” for the team. White agrees with that sentiment. “She’s a legend to this team,” White said. “She’s inspired us all.”

Erlichman’s goal coming this year was to improve and have a positive effect on the team. She didn’t focus on last year’s accolades. She never guessed that her impact on the team would come from off the mat.

Next year, Erlichman plans to pursue a graduate assistant coaching job. She wants to coach, and this season has only solidified those dreams.

“This entire year has been surreal,” she said. “It’s been so rewarding to watch my teammates grow.”

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At 9:03 p.m. on Thursday night, Oregon senior Sarah Moreno stood face-to-face at the center of Matthew Knight Arena with her former coach Felecia Mulkey. Mulkey gave Moreno a smile and a nudge on the left arm before both of them turned around and went their respective ways.

Moreno jogged to the locker room. Mulkey walked with her Baylor team to the nearest exit.

Fifty-seven minutes earlier, Matthew Knight Arena went silent, except for screams of joy from the Baylor sector. The scoreboard flashed a 96.95 Oregon score in the team routine, marking the team’s first home loss in program history. No. 2 Baylor beat No. 1 Oregon, 279.770-278.825.

Across the court, Oregon was somber. But as moments passed, the looks of disappointment changed. Oregon junior Shelby Armstrong was smiling. “This is great,” she said. “We’ve always talked about a meet coming down to the team routine, but we’ve never actually had it.”

Tonight’s meet was a validation of a decision made in early June. Mulkey shocked the acrobatics and tumbling world by leaving four-time National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association (NCATA) National Champion Oregon to become the head coach at Baylor.

Leaving the girls at Oregon was the hardest part. But she knew the sport needed to grow.

During the meet, Mulkey was locked in what she calls “business mode.” Like a dam, her emotions were held in check. After the meet, when she saw her former athletes for the first time since she left, the emotions bursted through.

“I knew when I started hugging them that I was going to start crying like a small child,” Mulkey said.

Earlier in the week, Oregon coach Chelsea Shaw said that the sport needed another good program in it. She said Oregon needed friendly camaraderie and a healthy rivalry. Baylor’s come from behind win after trailing, heading into the final event, signified just that.

“This is what the sport is about,” Mulkey said. “You’re going to see more of this and it’s not going to be just Oregon and Baylor.”

Currently, there are 13 teams in the NCATA. Mulkey said by next fall, there will be 17.

Shaw hopes that the loss to Baylor will light a fire under her team similar to the way Oregon bounced back last year on it’s way to a championship. “They’ve come together and gone through a lot of adversity already,” Shaw said. “They’ve never lost at home, so they’ve never known what this felt like.”

Last year, Mulkey was the last to leave the arena. She’d pack her bags, find the same exit she left with her Baylor team tonight and make the short drive home to play with her dogs.

Routine.

Tonight, Mulkey will take her team to the Sixth Street Grill – one of her favorite places to eat in Eugene along with Cafe Yumm and Voodoo Donuts – and head to the hotel before flying back to Waco, Texas in the morning.

Change. But a required change to make the sport of acrobatics and tumbling grow.

“This is very weird,” Mulkey said as she looked around the arena. “It was like I was just here yesterday.”

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When the 2015 Oregon acrobatics and tumbling schedule came out, there was no circle around March 12. That date, Thursday, is when former Oregon coach Felecia Mulkey – who left the Ducks for Baylor this past summer – returns to Matthew Knight Arena.

Instead, the Ducks are preparing for their match with Baylor like they would against any other team. Coach Chelsea Shaw said, in preparing for Baylor, the team took time out to “respect their opponent,” a process the team has done before each meet this season.

“We do it no matter if it’s coach Felecia standing across the mat or any other coach,” Shaw said.

For the team, going up against a former coach is meaningful, but not during the meet.

“It’ll be different, but they aren’t our coaches anymore,” said sophomore and reigning National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association (NCATA) player of the week Krista Phillips. “We can’t think about it. We can think about our feelings after the meet.”

Aside from the obvious narrative of coach Mulkey’s first trip back to Oregon, the meet itself pits the top two ranked teams in the NCATA against each other. Baylor is undefeated at 4-0 after beating Azusa Pacific on Monday. Oregon is undefeated at 3-0, as well. The Bears were the only other team to receive first place votes in this year’s preseason poll. “It’s going to be neck and neck the entire time,” junior Shelby Armstrong said.

“That’s why we do this sport: it’s competitive,” Shaw said. “It’s no fun when it’s not close.”

With Oregon winning the past four NCATA National Championships, their recent domination of the sport has been apparent. Thursday’s meet between Baylor and Oregon is something Shaw called good for the entire sport.

“This sport needed another good program in it,” Shaw said. “Now, it has it and now it has that friendly camaraderie and rivalry.”

Despite the undefeated record, Shaw told GoDucks.com after last week’s win over Quinnipiac that her team would “hit the ground running” to clean up and “fine tune” some things before meeting up against Baylor. The main element of her team’s performance she wished to clean up was the consistency of “hitting it,” or perfecting a routine.

“You have to be consistent or it is just kind of luck if you hit it on the mat,” Shaw said. “I don’t like going into a meet worrying about if something is going to hit or not.”

Notes

Thursday’s meet will be the team’s “Pink Meet.” The meet will be competed in support of Play 4Kay Foundation for Breast Cancer Awareness. The Oregon athletic department is encouraging fans to wear pink for the meet. 100 pink rubber duckies will be given away to fans at the meet.

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Before club and high school basketball games, Lexi Bando found motivation in a stack of video tapes.

She’d sit in front of the television at her Eugene home – from the time she started playing organized basketball in first grade – and take in highlights of Hall of Famer Larry Bird. Her father, Dave, a lifetime Boston Celtics fan, used Bird’s film as a learning tool for his athletically inclined daughter. As she got older, the tapes turned to DVDs that she would watch on her computer during the drive to games. “Stud – all-around best player,” Lexi labels Bird.

The tapes showed a player that averaged over 24 points during his 14-year career. But ingrained in Bird’s highlights was an aggressive mentality that Lexi seeks to emulate when she steps on the court. “Playing mean,” Lexi said about her playing style, “just playing aggressive all the time.”

As a freshman on the Oregon women’s basketball team, Lexi’s gritty playing style’s been a stand-out factor. Lexi, an Honorable Mention All Pac-12 freshman this season, has started 27 games for the Ducks, averaging 10.8 points per game.

Junior Jillian Alleyne calls Lexi “feisty,” saying the freshman from Willamette High School brings a competitive edge to the team. In practices, Lexi is vocal, even for a freshman. During drills, Lexi likes to hold her teammates accountable. “You don’t make a layup, and she’s on you,” Alleyne cautions.

This feistiness is something Lexi’s mother, Ruthie, considers innate with her daughter. It blossomed during one-on-one matches with her older brother, Joe, growing up. Though three years younger than Joe, Lexi wasn’t afraid to play against her older brother, or other boys his age.

Kenya Wilkins coached Joe and his club basketball team, years ago. On the side of the court, Wilkins remembers Lexi dribbling, shooting and doing drills on her own. “She was always at our practice,” Wilkins said.

One time, Wilkins was down a boy in practice and needed an extra player. Lexi stepped in. On one of the first plays, one of the boys drove to the basket full-speed. When he went up for the shot, Lexi met him mid-stride. “He plowed over her,” Wilkins says, “but she popped right back up.”

“I’ve learned a lot from playing with guys,” Lexi said. “They play the game way more aggressive than girls.”

Over time, Lexi turned from a girl with an aggressive streak, to an elite basketball player with a competitive edge. She generated college recruiting interest in her freshman season at Willamette. Her first recruiting letter – one with an Oregon ‘O’ on it – still hangs in the Bando house.

As a freshman, Lexi didn’t want to stay close to home. “I wanted to get away,” Lexi said. “I wanted a fresh start.”

She set her sights on playing on the East Coast, an idea that scared her mother. “I was ready to get away,” Lexi said. But as time progressed and the recruiting heated up, Lexi would gradually constrain her ideal college choices. Eventually, she chose to play for coach Kelly Graves at Gonzaga University. She signed her letter of intent in the Willamette gym. Her future was signed and sealed.

A lifetime Oregon fan, Lexi started re-decorating her room after her college choice. The green and yellow Oregon apparel that lined her walls was replaced with Zags white, red and blue. She took the Oregon sticker off her car and replaced with a Gonzaga logo.

Everything seemed set.

Then, Graves decided to move down the West Coast and take the head coaching job at Oregon. Due to NCAA restrictions, Lexi couldn’t talk with Graves. The coach she chose to play for had left. Paperwork was official and she was trapped. “I was disappointed with coach and I was frustrated,” Lexi said.

Eventually, the two talked. Previous fears of Graves not wanting her were alleviated. She went through a petition process and broke her letter of intent with Gonzaga. She took down the white, blue and red in her room and hung the Oregon gear back on her bedroom walls. The Oregon ‘O’ found it’s way on her car, once again. Dave and Ruthie had made a habit of wearing Gonzaga gear around, as well. Now, those are packed away in boxes.

This season, Oregon finished the regular season 13-16 overall and 6-12 in Pac-12 competition. Lexi’s father said losing for her, After going to three state championship games at Willamette, has been tough. “She’s just so competitive,” Dave said. “It’s really been tough on her.”

In Oregon’s biggest win of the year, a 62-55 victory over No. 19 Stanford last Sunday, Lexi was on the bench with a shoulder injury. She’s missed the last two games. After the win over Stanford, Lexi told her father, “there’s no way I’m missing the next game.”

Lexi will get her chance Thursday morning. The Pac-12 tournament in Seattle starts with Oregon playing Washington State at 11:30 a.m. Knowing the person and player that Lexi is, Wilkins believes what Lexi told her father.

“Lexi has always maximized her opportunities,” Wilkins said. “If she can find a way to get on the court, no matter what it is, she’ll find it.”

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The Oregon acrobatics and tumbling team had its lowest score of the season on Sunday, but a strong second-half performance against Quinnipiac sealed the team’s third-straight victory. The Ducks won in Hamden, Connecticut by a final score of 274.315 – 264.065.

“Although the first half didn’t go as well as we had hoped, I was proud of our athletes for recovering and finishing the second half strong,” Oregon coach Chelsea Shaw told GoDucks.com.

In the compulsory event, Oregon used a 9.65 score in the pyramid heat to take a  37.60 – 37.10 lead. Oregon edged out Quinnipiac in the acro event by less than a full point.

Quinnipiac scored higher than Oregon in the third event to head into halftime trailing  95.10 – 94.24.

In the second half Oregon returned to form, winning all three events, including a 95.99 score in the team routine. Last Saturday against Concordia University-Wisconsin, Oregon scored 93.74 in the team routine.

The road trip to Connecticut was Oregon’s last East Coast visit of the regular season. The next time the Ducks head to the East Coast will be for the NCATA national championship meet in Fairmont, West Virginia.

In 11 days, Oregon will welcome former head coach Felecia Mulkey and the Baylor Bears to Matthew Knight Arena. Baylor, the only other team besides Oregon to receive a first-place vote in the preseason coaches’ poll, is undefeated at 3-0, as well.

“We will hit the ground running on Tuesday at practice to clean up and fine tune some things in preparation for our next meet,” Shaw said.

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Oregon and Hawaii have agreed to a three-game football series, according to Ferd Lewis of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

The Ducks will play host to Hawaii in 2020 and 2023 before heading to Aloha Stadium in 2024.

“With so many players on our roster coming from Hawaii, it makes a lot of sense for us,” Oregon Athletic Director Rob Mullens told the Star-Advertiser.

The state of Hawaii has been a recruiting go-to for the Oregon program. The Ducks had six players on its roster last year from the Aloha State, including Heisman trophy winner Marcus Mariota and defensive lineman DeForest Buckner.

Oregon and Hawaii last met in 1994. The Ducks hold a 4-3 advantage in the series.

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Oregon acrobatics and tumbling sophomore Krista Phillips was named the National Collegiate Acrobatic and Tumbling Association (NCATA) inaugural player of the week Friday.

Phillips competed in every event of Oregon’s victories over Asuza Pacific and Concordia University – Wisconsin.

Against Concordia, Phillips scored an event-high 9.775 individual score in the six-element pass of the tumbling event.

Phillips was also a part of a group that scored a perfect 10 in the pyramid heat in the compulsory event two meets in a row.

Undefeated Oregon (2-0) will face Quinnipiac Sunday at 9 a.m. (PT).

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Everywhere you looked, Lauren Jones was there.

The parking attendees wore “Ducks Fly Together” shirts with the No. 51 on the back in bright yellow. Matthew Knight Arena displayed her number on every screen. “LJ” patches were sewed above the right side of Oregon’s jerseys. Even Oregon senior Erika Schaefer had a yellow No. 51 tangled into her mohawk hair.

“This whole thing was about honoring Lauren,” coach Chelsea Shaw said, “and that was exactly what we wanted to do.”

Oregon beat visiting Concordia-Wisconsin 275.490 – 239.815 in its home-opener.

Jones sudden death on Tuesday was blind-sighting. Jones had been at Monday’s practice the day before. Shaw was in a meeting when she was told to go to the hospital for Jones. Shaw sat in the hospital’s lobby when the emergency room doctor and a chaplain emerged to tell her there was nothing more they could do to save Jones’ life.

“There’s no way to prepare yourself for a tragedy like this,” Shaw said on Friday. “I never expected in my whole coaching career that I would have to deal with the death of an athlete, let alone my second year as a head coach. I think it’s going be an emotional roller coaster as we transition and grieve, but I’m just trying to be a strong leader for my team and for this program.”

Practice on Tuesday and Wednesday was cancelled as the team tried its best to regroup.

Shaw asked her team if they wanted to compete on Saturday against Concordia.

“They said yes,” Shaw recalled, “without hesitation. We want to do it for Lauren.”

When the team ran on the mat before the meet, they all wore neon yellow “Jones 51″ shirts with the words “Gone, but never forgotten” written on the back.

The only athlete not to wear one was Sydnee Walton. Instead, she wore Jones’ jersey. Friends with Jones since she was seven, Walton felt that Jones was with her throughout the competition.

“I was really down that she couldn’t physically be here with me,” Walton said, “but I felt that she was here in spirit.”

In the team routine – the final event of the night – Oregon concluded its performance by throwing up five fingers on their right hands and one finger on their left.

The meet was filled with small tributes for Jones. During the meet, the team’s Twitter account posted a link to help donate and erase the cost of Jones’ funeral for her family.

“Lauren was such a great person and she deserves to have this done for her,” Walton said. “Every little thing, every little detail – she deserved all that we could do for her.”

Shaw called this period one of “grieving and transition” for the team. After everyone had left Matthew Knight Arena, workers – wearing the Ducks Fly Together black t-shirts – cleaned the stands and rolled in the basketball hoops for tomorrow’s men’s basketball game against Utah.

The lights on the same screens that flashed the No. 51 earlier in the meet were turned off.

Transition was evident. Moving on was inevitable.

But for Shaw and the Oregon team, Jones won’t ever leave. Her patch will stay on their jerseys throughout the season – a season dedicated to her memory.

“That’s what kept them strong,” Shaw said about seeing constant reminders of Jones’ memory. “That was really just to celebrate her and I hope it continues through the rest of the season.”

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Lauren Jones never had the chance to wear her No. 51 jersey at Matthew Knight Arena. But for one night only, No. 51 will have have its place on the mat.

Jones’s childhood friend and fellow acrobatics and tumbling student-athlete Sydnee Walton will wear Jones’ jersey during the team’s first home meet on Saturday in remembrance of Jones’ sudden death from meningococcemia earlier this week. After Saturday’s home-opening meet against Concordia-Wisconsin, the jersey will be retired in honor of Jones, according to Walton.

“Lauren was truly my idol,” Walton, a junior at Oregon, said. “She’s the type of person I want to be. It means a lot to have her with me.”

Along with Walton’s jersey tribute, the entire team will wear “LJ” patches on their jerseys and “Jones 51″ t-shirts with the words “Gone, but never forgotten” scripted in neon yellow – Jones’ favorite color.

“We’re trying to do everything we can to honor her tomorrow at our meet and for the rest of the season,” coach Chelsea Shaw said.

These small tributes are in honor of  Jones, a person Shaw called “the most selfless and loving person I have ever met.”

After news hit of Jones’ passing, the team gathered for a candlelit dinner. Memories of Jones ruled the evening, according to Shaw. At Friday’s press conference, Shaw described memories of Jones. She recalled Jones waiting up at the door to Barnhart Hall for her teammates to get home safe. She’d ask, “How was your day?” and tell teammates “It’s great to see you” upon walking in.

Shaw joined Jones’ family in cleaning out Jones’ room earlier this week. Inside Jones’ room, Shaw saw examples of the person Jones was. One sign in particular defined the selflessness that Shaw remembers about Jones.

Shaw found a sign that Jones had made for Walton. Jones had planned on giving the sign out to fans during the first home meet.

“The thought that she would think of somebody else and plan that far in advance – something that nice for someone – just reaffirmed what kind of person she was,” Shaw said.

Before she passed, Jones would go up to Walton and tease her about the surprise sign.

“She didn’t want to tell me what it was, but she would come up to me and say, ‘I’m so excited for the meet and I can’t wait till you see it, but I have something really big planned,’” Walton said.

Saturday, when the team hits the mat, it’ll be competing with a heavy heart. Shaw said that the team is rallying together to do well in competition while honoring Jones.

“They’ve come together as a family,” Shaw said. “More importantly, they didn’t just lose a teammate, they lost a sister. That’s been the hardest part. I think they’re rallying together as a community and they’re going to dedicate tomorrow’s meet – as well as this entire season – to Lauren.”

Jonathan Hawthorne contributed reporting. 

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Results from Lauren Jones’ autopsy on Wednesday were inconclusive, according to Lane County Public Health spokesman Jason Davis.

Davis said that they haven’t ruled out meningococcemia or meningitis as a cause of Jones’ death. Lane County Public Health is awaiting results on blood tests they sent out to local and state-wide testing sites to further diagnose Jones’ cause of death.

Jones, 18, died unexpectedly Tuesday after she was found in her room at Barnhart Hall. Jones was a freshman on the Oregon acrobatics and tumbling team.

Christian Hill of the Register-Guard reported Wednesday that Jones was released from Peace Health Sacred Heart Medical Center, University District approximately 11 hours before she was found dead.

Davis added that the University is “doing all they can” to get as may students vaccinated for the meningitis bacteria as possible.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, an outbreak of meningitis occurs when three cases are linked together in the span of three months. Oregon has had three cases of Neisseria meningococcemia since the start of the new year. The first case was reported on Jan. 16.

The CDC also states that, on college campuses, two cases linked together can meet the outbreak definition.

Most cases of diagnosed meningococcemia are what the CDC calls sporadic, meaning over 95 percent are not classified as part of an outbreak.

University of Oregon spokeswoman Julie Brown said Tuesday that a bacterial infection is a possibility in Jones’ case.

At around 7 p.m. Tuesday, the University of Oregon gave out emergency antibiotics to residents of Barnhart, the same dorm Jones lived in.

“This is a preventive step,” Brown told the Emerald. “We have reached out to residents of Barnhart as well as student athletes about the prophylactic medication.”

Acrobatics and tumbling coach Chelsea Shaw called Jones’ death a “terrible and sudden loss” for the whole Oregon community.

“Lauren was such a positive and bright spirit every day, and her smile was contagious,” Shaw said. “She will be greatly missed and our prayers and deepest condolences go out to her whole family, friends, previous teammates and anyone else who had the opportunity to know Lauren.”

More to come.

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