PITTSBURGH - The Duquesne women's lacrosse team begins the 2020 campaign with a road contest at Ohio State in Columbus on Friday night at 7 p.m. ET at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. The game will stream live on Big Ten Network Plus. 

The Dukes, who are coming off a 9-8 season in 2019, were recently selected to finish fifth in the 2020 Atlantic 10 Preseason Coaches' Poll. Senior midfielder Maddie Hart (Sykesville, Md. / Century) and junior defender (Victor, N.Y. / Victor) earned preseason all-conference accolades for Duquesne, which qualified for its first A-10 Championship Tournament since 2016 last season under second-year head coach Corinne Desrosiers.

Desrosiers and the Dukes recorded nine wins for the first time since 2016 after tallying a total of six total wins the previous two seasons. Duquesne set new single-season program records in 2019 for goals with 270, points with 371 and shots attempted with 669. The Dukes led NCAA Division I in shots per game and shots on goal per game while ranking second in caused turnovers per game, third in ground balls per game and eighth in draw controls per game. Duquesne sported the eighth-ranked scoring offense in the country, netting 15.88 goals per contest. 

Both Hart and Reed garnered First Team All-Conference honors in 2019. Hart - the Dukes' all-time leader in draw controls - broke her own single-season record with 117 last year. She also ranked seventh in the nation in both caused turnovers per game (2.53) and ground balls per game (3.35) while netting 46 goals and dishing out eight assists. 

Reed finished second on the team with 41 ground balls and 40 caused turnovers on the season. 

Also returning is leading scorer Rilee Bradshaw (Middletown, Md. / Middletown) and Duquesne's leader in assists in Michaela Connolly (Sykesville, Md. / Century). Bradshaw led the A-10 with 37 goals in conference play, while Connolly tallied a team-high 25 assists to go with 32 goals on the year. Bradshaw will serve as a captain alongside fellow senior Kirsten Barnes (Brielle, N.J. / Manasquan), who finished with 10 goals, four assists, 17 ground balls and 15 draw controls a season ago for the Dukes. 

SCOUTING OHIO STATE 
The Buckeyes are led by first-year head coach Amy Bokker, who comes to Columbus by way of Palo Alto, Calif. whereshe led Stanford to six conference titles and eight NCAA tournament appearances over 11 seasons as head coach.

Ohio State finished 9-8 in 2019 with a 1-5 mark in Big Ten action, dropping four of its last five contests of the season. 

The Buckeyes return second-leading scorer Liza Hernandez, who recorded 61 points last season including 35 goals. They also return goalie Jill Rizzo, who led the NCAA in saves per game in 2018. 

Ohio State was picked to finish sixth in the seven-team Big Ten Preseason Poll. 

NEXT UP
The Dukes open the home portion of the 2020 slate next Wednesday, Feb. 12 hosting Canisius at 3 p.m. at Arthur J. Rooney Field.