WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. - The West Liberty University acrobatics & tumbling team begins its season later today at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. The Hilltoppers enter the season ranked 15th in the national poll, but will be faced with a tough test in meet one taking on the defending national champions and No. 1 ranked Baylor Bears.

"I am so excited to kick off our season," said Head Coach Kelsey Kyle. "The team has been working extremely hard since August, so I am very excited to show everyone what we have been working on."

Kyle is now in her fourth season at the helm of the Black and Gold and has seen success, but is still striving for more in 2023. West Liberty University was selected as the NCATA National Championship host site this April and Kyle sees no better time for the Hilltoppers to make their first appearance. "It definitely has put even more urgency on this team to work as hard as possible," said Coach Kyle. "Our goal is to finish this season competing for the first time in program history at the national championship tournament in front of our home crowd."

West Liberty rose as high as No. 11 in the NCATA last season after starting 4-0, but injuries to key competitors slowed the Hilltoppers down and ultimately put them in a three-way tie for second place at the end of the Mountain East Conference regular season, then they bowed out in the conference tournament semifinals. "We started off strong last season, but had some injuries late that made us change up some events," said Coach Kyle. "This season my goal for the team is to work on consistency in events so we can put up high scores all season long." 

The nationally-ranked Hilltoppers have built a strong schedule that features five opponents in the top 12.  "We have a tough schedule planned out for us, but I believe that the only way to move up in the rankings is to beat teams that are ranked higher than us," said Coach Kyle. "However, we plan to take our schedule one meet at a time to really put an emphasis on our execution and cleanliness of skills in order to get those high scores we need."

This year's Hilltopper squad features graduate student Paige McGlothlin, who is coming off a second team All-MEC honor at base in 2022, two seniors, three juniors, 10 sophomores, and nine freshman. MEC Freshman of the Year Abbey Horvath returns for her sophomore season at base.

The action begins today at 4 pm est in Texas, then the Hilltoppers will have a three-meet homestand beginning on February 14 against No. 2 Gannon. The MEC opener middles the home stretch on February 19 versus Glenville State. Four straight road meets followed by a home conference tri-meet sets the Black and Gold up for the Mountain East Conference Tournament on April 14-15. 

West Liberty will host the NCATA National Championship on April 27-29 inside the ASRC. Tickets and more information will be available soon.

Follow the Hilltoppers all season long online at HilltopperSports.com, as well as on Twitter (@WLU_AcroTumb, @WLathletics), Instagram (@wlu_acrotumb, @wlu_athletics), and Facebook.