ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – The Duquesne lacrosse team secured a berth into the Atlantic 10 Championship with a 20-12 win at St. Bonaventure Saturday in the regular-season finale.
 
The Dukes (7-9, 4-5 A-10) clinched the No. 5 seed in the league's post-season tournament and will take on No. 4 seed Davidson in an opening round game on Thursday, April 28 at 11 a.m. in Amherst, Massachusetts.
 
Duquesne took down St. Bonaventure (1-14, 0-9 A-10) behind a career-high five goals from freshman Sam King (Newburyport, Mass./Newburyport). She also chipped in an assist for six points on the day.
 
Alana Piano (Brockport, N.Y./Aquinas Institute) finished with a full line of four goals, one assist, four ground balls, two caused turnovers and eight draw controls. Delaney Rodriguez-Shaw (Longmeadow, Mass./Longmeadow) posted four points (three goals and one assist) to go with seven draw controls, whole both Mackenzie Leszczynski (Flourtown, Pa./Plymouth Whitemarsh) and Tina St. Clair (West Chester, Pa./Rustin) each scored three goals.
 
The Bonnies led 2-1 with 3:44 to play in the first quarter. The Dukes tallied a trio of goals in the next two minutes to take the lead, before a St. Bonaventure goal in the final 30 seconds of the period made the score 4-3 after one quarter.
 
The Dukes went on a 4-1 run through the first five minutes of the second quarter, including consecutive goals by King, to take an 8-4 lead. The Bonnies answered with three-straight goals of their own to close out the half and slice the Duquesne lead down to 8-7 heading into halftime.
 
King, Rodriguez-Shaw and St. Clair scored the first three goals of the second half to rebuild the Dukes lead to 11-7 with 7:27 showing on the clock. The Bonnies ended the run two minutes, later before consecutive goals by Piano pushed the Duquesne lead to 13-8 in the final minute of the third quarter.
 
St. Bonaventure countered with a 3-1 run to draw back within three at 14-11 with 12:46 remaining in the game, but the Dukes out-scored the Bonnies 6-1 over the final 12 minutes of the game to secure the win and clinch an A-10 Championship berth. Duquesne scored each of the final four goals and held St. Bonaventure off the scoreboard over the final six minutes of the game.
 
The Dukes out-shot the Bonnies 39 to 22 and forced 21 turnovers, compared to just 14 for Duquesne.
 
The Dukes are returning to the A-10 Championship for the first time since 2019, when they lost to Richmond in the quarterfinals. The 2020 tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Duquesne opens play at the 2022 A-10 Championship on Thursday, April 28 at 11 a.m. when it takes on Davidson in a first round game. The Dukes were defeated 23-14 earlier in the season at Davidson when the two teams met. The winner of the opening round game will take on top-seed UMass in the quarterfinals the following day. All A-10 Championship games will air on ESPN+.