KUTZTOWN, Pa. -- The Kutztown University acrobatics & tumbling team outperformed Morgan State by more than 6.5 points in the team event to secure a dramatic 228.250-225.090 victory in its home opener at Keystone Arena Friday night.

In a back-and-forth meet, Kutztown (2-1) led at the conclusion of three events but none were bigger than the final occasion.

Morgan State (0-3), overcame a 1.75-point second-half deficit heading into the tumbling event by outscoring the Golden Bears 50.150-45.000 to take a 3.4-point advantage to the team event. The Bears were only able to score 66.49 from their 103.28 start value and Kutztown pounced with a 73.05 out of a possible 96.40 to pull out the win in the first-ever meeting between the two schools.

KU came out of the gate with three strong heats in the compulsory event, scoring 9.45 in the pyramid heat, 9.20 in the toss heat and 8.55 in the acro heat. Morgan State kept pace, however, with the Golden Bears holding a slim 33.95-33.90 lead after the opening event.

The visiting Bears jumped in front for the first time following the acro event but Kutztown responded with 9.0 or higher scores in all three heats of the pyramid event. Tiffani Lincoln (Oneonta, N.Y./Oneonta), Sydney Jundt (Rochester Hills, Mich./Rochester), Cecilia Marshall (Bellingham, Mass./Home Schooled), Catherine Lewis (Limerick, Pa./Spring-Ford), Sienna Barbarisi (New Providence, N.J./New Providence) and RoseMary Werkheiser (Easton, Pa./Easton) were on the mat for the pyramid open heat, scoring an impressive 9.75 --KU's highest heat score of the meet.

The Maroon and Gold scored 9.30 in the synchronized heat and 9.00 in the inversion heat, taking an 85.85-83.45 lead to halftime.

Morgan State cut into KU's lead slightly in the toss event coming out of the break before a big effort in the tumbling event to retake the lead. Lincoln put forth a 9.35 out of a possible 9.55 in the tumbling 6-element heat, the third-highest score in that heat in program history.

Kutztown will get another chance to compete in front of its home crowd next week when it hosts Stevenson on Thursday, Feb. 27, at 6 p.m.