The Duquesne Dukes women’s basketball team heard its name called however for the seventh consecutive season it was not for the NCAA Tournament.
Instead the Dukes will return to the WNIT when they will play a road game Thursday against Youngstown State.
“I must say that it really stings,” coach Dan Burt said. “Am I bitter? Yes, without a doubt, and a lot of other emotions too. That’s to be expected. At the end of the day, we have to take this hurt and moved forward.”
The Dukes had a 9-6 non-conference schedule which included losses against Princeton, Syracuse and Green Bay to open the season. All three made the NCAA Tournament. Duquesne also lost to fellow WNIT participant West Virginia.
Two losses that may have hurt the Dukes were on the road to Providence and Saint Joseph’s. Providence was 6-24 on the season. Saint Joseph’s had an all-conference player in Natasha Cloud, however her supporting case was injury riddled and it affected the team, which normally is contending for a conference title.
“Any loss against a sub-200 RPI is a major hit. Saint Joseph’s was tough loss but we still finished the season 10-2. The NCAA said how you play at the end of the season matters, and you can’t do better than 10-2.
We made it to the Atlantic 10 semifinals and you can’t do much more than that. At the end of the day, everyone cane only control so much of their own destiny. We needed a few more things to happen and they didn’t.”
Duquesne did have noteworthy wins such as one against Pitt, another NCAA Tournament team and at Fordham, a place many teams have come away with a loss. Fordham was coming off a season in which it made the NCAA Tournament and its defense causes match-up problems for opponents. The Dukes finished the regular season ranked third in the A-10.
Duquesne is led by guard April Robinson’s 14.1 points per game, 145 assists and 81 three point field goals. Robinson is a 1,000 point scorer Burt always refers to as the “catalyst”. Forward Amadea Szamosi [10.8 ppg/6.0 rpg], Deva’Nyar Workman [10.3 ppg/6.3 rpg], Jose-Ann Johnson [9.1 ppg/6.2 rpg] are each among the leaders on the Dukes team.
The Dukes fell to NCAA Tournament team Dayton in the Atlantic 10 semifinals by a 74-60 score with Flyers coach Jim Jabir saying that the NCAA needed to award the Dukes for being the third best team in the A-10. It was not to be.
Now the Dukes will have to channel its latest disappointment into the WNIT and Youngstown State.
“Many people did not believe in this team and in our seniors,” said Burt. “Our seniors are the grittiest, toughest group of seniors that we have ever had at Duquesne. It’s been a special year because of those seniors and what they have done for their program, but we’re not done.”
