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PITTSBURGH – The surging St. Bonaventure women's soccer team will aim for a third straight victory when it visits rival Duquesne for an Atlantic 10 Conference matchup at 7 p.m. Friday.
The Bonnies (5-8-1) are coming off back-to-back 1-0 home victories over Temple and Saint Joseph's that evened their conference record at 2-2. Those wins boosted St. Bonaventure into a five-way tie for 5th place in the A-10 standings.
Duquesne (4-8-2, 0-3-1 A-10), meanwhile, is winless in conference play and is 14th in the standings under first-year coach Al Alvine. The Dukes have not scored a goal in four A-10 games, but picked up a point in the standings via a 0-0 tie against Saint Joseph's. They have also lost to La Salle and Temple in overtime.
Senior Morgan Herbert leads the Dukes with five goals and two assists. Duquesne, which owns a 2-3-1 home record, has scored 10 goals and given up 20 on the season.
The Bonnies are 3-6 in their last nine meetings with the Dukes dating back to 2002, but SBU has won three of the last four contests. The last time the teams met at Duquesne, the Dukes prevailed 2-1 in 2010. St. Bonaventure's last win at Duquesne came via a 3-1 triumph in 2008. Last season at McGraw-Jennings Field, then-freshman Molly Curry scored a goal and classmate Brittany Charles passed out an assist for Bona in its 2-1 victory over the Dukes last season.
For SBU, Shannon Van Riper leads the team with four goals and eight points this season, while Charles has chipped in six points on a goal and four assists. A balanced Bonaventure offensive attack has also had five different players deliver a game-winning goal in each of their five victories thus far this season.
Prior to the consecutive shutouts against Temple and Saint Joseph's last weekend, the last time a Bonnies team shut out back-to-back opponents came in 2009, when SBU blanked Rhode Island Saint Louis, 2-0 and 1-0, respectively, on Sept. 25 and 27. In fact, the Bonnies went on to shut out a third straight opponent in their next game as they blanked Duquesne, 1-0, on Oct. 3.
The Bonnies have Sunday off before returning to the pitch at Dayton on Friday, Oct. 19.
