Pittsburgh, Pa. – Senior goalkeeper Ali Hughes of the Duquesne University women's soccer team was named the Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Week Monday. It marks her first award of the 2026 season and second of her career.

In a pair of victories last week at Rooney Field, Hughes, a native of New Kensington, Pa., posted a pair of shutouts while accumulating 16 saves to help the Dukes earn back-to-back wins for the first time this season.

In a 2-0 victory over Akron (8/27) to open Duquesne's home slate, Hughes matched a career high with seven saves in securing her second clean sheet of the 2026 campaign. Three days later in a 1-0 triumph over Kent State (8/30) at Rooney Field, Hughes went a step further, establishing a new career high with nine saves in preserving consecutive shutouts.

Entering play this week, Hughes is tied for 14th in NCAA Division I in total saves (30) with Kianah Farmer of Jackson State, Ella Kratochvil of Eastern Illinois and Thordis Melsted of Northern Colorado. Her three shutouts also ranks in the top 15 in the country and is two behind the national leader, Rebecca Kessler of Binghamton, who owns five clean sheets this year.

Hughes, who collected her first career Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Week Oct. 6, 2025, has started each of Duquesne's last 24 games at goalkeeper dating back to the beginning of the 2025 campaign. She owns a record of 15-7-2 (.667) and has logged a career 1.04 goals against average, a save percentage of .800 and 100 saves.

Led by head coach Jessica Giegucz, the Dukes close out a three-game homestand against foes from the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Thursday, Sept. 3, at 1:00 p.m. against Toledo at Rooney Field.

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