Sept. 12, 2005
An Atlantic 10 Television Network home game versus first-year A-10 member Charlotte on Feb. 12 highlights the conference portion of Duquesne's women's Atlantic 10 Conference schedule released today. The Dukes, which open the league season at Saint Joseph's on Jan. 3, host Massachusetts in the conference home opener on Jan. 6.
Other home conference opponents include Dayton (Jan. 13), La Salle (Jan. 20), Saint Louis (Jan. 27), Xavier (Jan. 29), George Washington (Feb. 10) and St. Bonaventure (Feb. 26).
In addition to Saint Joseph's, the Dukes will travel to Richmond (Jan. 8), Saint Louis (Jan. 15), Rhode Island (Jan. 22), St. Bonaventure (Feb. 3), Temple (Feb. 5), Fordham (Feb. 17) and Dayton (Feb. 24).
With the addition of Charlotte and Saint Louis, the Atlantic 10 has adopted a new scheduling model with all 14 teams competing in one division. Each team will face three opponents twice and the other 10 once in a 16-game schedule. Duquesne's home-and-home opponents will be Dayton, St. Bonaventure and Saint Louis. The top 12 league finishers will participate in the Atlantic 10 Championship at Saint Joseph's University's Alumni Fieldhouse on March 3-6.
Head coach Dan Durkin's Dukes open the season with four games in the span of nine days beginning with the opener at home vs. East Carolina on Nov. 19. DU will face the first of nine teams which made post-season appearances last year on Nov. 22, when Penn State makes its first Palumbo Center visit since Jan. 7, 1991.
Other home non-conference opponents include: Akron (Dec. 3), 2005 WNIT participant West Virginia (Dec. 17) and Robert Morris.
Duquesne will head to Miami, Fla. for a pair of games in the Miami Tournament on Nov. 25-26 to conclude the challenging opening-season stretch. In addition to the Hurricanes, Bradley and Oakland are also playing at this event. DU's other road games include at Pitt (Nov. 30), at 2005 NCAA Tournament participant Bowling Green (Dec. 6), at 2005 WNIT participant Western Kentucky (Dec. 28) and at Ohio (Dec. 30).
Atlantic 10 schools which made post-season appearances last year include Temple (NCAA), Richmond (NCAA), George Washington (NCAA), Xavier (WNIT) and Charlotte (WNIT).
