March 25, 2008

The Duquesne women's soccer team is coming off of the best season in program history. In 2007, Duquesne finished second in the Atlantic 10 Conference, where they posted a conference record of 8-3, 11-8 overall. During this span, the Dukes posted a school record for most consecutive shutouts with four, eight in totals on the year which ties the record. This is an amazing turn around from just a season ago where the Dukes finished ninth with a record of 3-5-1, 4-10-2 overall.

Somis Sports, a California sports information company, has released their 2007 Division I women's soccer most improved team's rankings.

Somis Sports compared each team's final 2007 rating to its final 2006 rating. This is based on overall performance and strength of schedule. Based on their calculations, the 25 team listed showed the most improvement in 2007 vs. 2006.

A teams rating equate to net goals (goals scored minus goals against). Based on this calculation all team listed below improved by at least 1.3 goals per game. The wins is how many more wins each team had from the 2006 season

The Dukes rating was 1.81

2007 Somis Sports Most Improved Teams

Rank	Team	Rating	Wins	Conference
1	Hawaii	2.35	7	Western Athletic
2	Hofstra	2.28	9	Colonial
3	Southeast Missouri State	1.95	2	Ohio Valley
4	Marist	1.91	6	Metro Atlantic
5	Harvard	1.84	7	Ivy League
6	Duquesne	1.81	7	Atlantic 10
7	Iowa State	1.80	2	Big 12
8	Georgetown	1.79	9	Big East
9	Samford	1.79	4	Ohio Valley
10	Mississippi State	1.75	4	Southeastern
11	Murray State	1.60	6	Ohio Valley
12	Furman	1.58	5	Southern
13	UC Irvine	1.56	8	Big West
14	Georgia	1.53	8	Southeastern
15	Idaho	1.51	5	Western Athletic
16	Tennessee - Martin	1.50	5	Ohio Valley
17	Illinois State	1.48	4	Missouri Valley
18	Richmond	1.47	5	Atlantic 10
19	Arkansas - Little Rock	1.45	4	Sun Belt
20	Western Illinois	1.44	5	Summit League
21	Memphis	1.42	6	Conference USA
22	Alabama	1.42	4	Southeastern
23	High Point	1.38	7	Big South
24	Pennsylvania	1.33	5	Ivy League
25	Georgia State	1.31	4	Colonial