Jan. 26, 2003

The Atlantic 10 Conference announced Sunday that Duquesne's senior forward/center Beth Friday (Pittsburgh, PA / Upper St. Clair) is the league's Co-Player of the Week. Friday averaged a double-double (20.0 ppg, 12.0 rpg) this past week in leading the Dukes to a perfect 2-0 record. She shot 61.0 percent from the field and 66.7% from the foul line. And in 69 minutes of action, she had just three turnovers.

Against Fordham last Sunday, Jan. 19, the DU co-captain tied her career-high with a game-best 24 points to go with a game-high 16 rebounds in the 66-57 win. This was her 43rd career double-double performance. Then in the 79-75 win over St. Bonaventure on Thu. Jan. 23, she netted 16 points and grabbed a game-best eight rebounds

Going into today's action against Richmond, Friday paces the A-10 with 1.94 blocks per game, is second in the conference in rebounding with 10.8 rpg and eighth in scoring at 15.0 ppg. The Pittsburgh native is hitting 52.5 percent of her shots from the floor -- fourth in the league.

The career rebounding leader at Duquesne passed the 1,000 mark in scoring and rebounding earlier this season. Friday's totals are 1,265 points and 1,050 rebounds. She is the first Duke to achieve this double-K plateau and is just the fourth in the history of the conference. Currently, Friday is in seventh place among the Dukes' all-time scorers.

Friday was a first team All-Conference selection as a junior and again in this year's preseason voting. The business major also was a 2002 Verizon District II Second Team Academic All-America pick and was named to the 2002 Atlantic 10 Academic All-Conference team.

This is the second weekly conference honor for the 10-7, 3-3 Dukes. Freshman guard Aiga Bautre (Riga, Latvia / Catholic Central - NY) was named the A-10 Rookie of the Week on December 29, 2002.