Following a relatively successful beginning to the decade, rough times befell the Duquesne women’s lacrosse team during the 2017 season. Mike Scerbo, the team’s coach since 2005, left his post prior to the season for a compliance position in Duquesne’s athletic department, making way for long-time assistant Lisa Evans’ promotion. The Dukes, who’d averaged 11 wins per season from 2011-16, managed only six combined victories from 2017-18 — a far cry from the once-proud program’s usually successful ways.
At the conclusion of the 2018 campaign, athletic director Dave Harper decided it was time for a change. He tapped Corinne Desrosiers, then the head coach at Division II Florida Tech, to take over as Duquesne’s coach. Desrosiers immediately re-injected life into the team, leading it to a 9-8 record in her first season in Pittsburgh. Then, the coronavirus pandemic hit, cutting Desrosiers’ second season short before it really got started.
Midfielder Maddie Hart, now a graduate student, has been with the Dukes since 2017. She came to Pittsburgh planning to play for Scerbo, then watched as Evans took over as the program’s leader. Following two subpar seasons, Desrosiers was named the team’s third head coach in as many years, completing a circuitous period of coaching changes.
Hart — already the program’s all-time leader in draw controls with 252 — said Desrosiers’ hiring was exactly what the team needed to rediscover its identity.
“I don’t think we really knew where to put our energy, and when Corinne came, she was a lot more focused on putting in hard work,” Hart said, “and you’ll see results.”
The results have been bountiful. In 2019, Desrosiers led Duquesne to its first winning record — and first conference tournament appearance — since 2016, orchestrating a team that shattered multiple single-season program records in the process, including goals (270) and shots attempted (669).
“Initially, my short-term goals were to make lacrosse fun again, start to teach this team instinctual, freelance play so they’re not just handcuffed by structure,” Desrosiers said. “I just wanted them to start to feel out the sport a little bit more.
“You got kids to start to drink the Kool-Aid again, that lacrosse can be awesome, and that Duquesne can really be a power.”
Following an encouraging debut on the Bluff in 2019, Desrosiers’ Dukes looked to continue progressing in her second year. The team began the season 3-3, including losses to Big Ten programs Ohio State and Penn State and wins against Canisius and Saint Francis.
In retrospect, the team’s last game would be its 25-2 victory against Akron on March 11, mere days before the country practically shut down in response to the novel coronavirus’ outbreak. Spring sports were canceled, leaving Duquesne wondering how it might have fared had the season gone on like usual.
Interestingly enough, Desrosiers said she thought her team had hit a metaphorical wall prior to the season’s premature ending.
“I think last year we started to hit a little more of that sophomore slump in terms of expectations and needing to meet requirements, but then COVID took the year away, so we didn’t get to really work through some of those bumps,” the Boston native said. “This year is awesome. We have our first couple recruits that we brought in. We brought in a small class because we wanted a smaller, more condensed roster.”
Now back on campus for the fall term, the team has been working in preparation for the 2021 season but hasn’t been able to resume its typical lacrosse activities like it would in normal times.
In an effort to curtail the virus’ impact, the Dukes have steered away from contact drills this fall, instead opting for things that permit social distancing, like conditioning drills and individual skill work.
“We did a tic-tac-toe race the other day. Some days we play soccer. We play other sports to get different muscles engaged and working on those,” senior defenseman Sydney Reed said. “It’s definitely been weird, but Corinne is definitely trying to make it fun for us, so we’re just not running the entire time.”
Both Hart and Reed said that improved conditioning has aided the team in on-field situations.
“We do run a lot, but from what I’ve seen, it is so worth it in games. We sub less, we have the best players at the time on the field all throughout the game,” Reed said. “We’re outrunning teams, outlasting teams.”
“If we hopefully get a chance to play in the spring, we don’t want to show up and be out of shape — we want to show up and give it everything we’ve got,” Hart said.
Desrosiers said that being in the middle of a city during a global pandemic has presented a unique set of challenges, but given the circumstances, she’s grateful to be on campus at this point in time, even though it’s frustrating to not be able to play lacrosse.
“There are teams in our conference that are not even on campus this fall. They haven’t done anything,” Desrosiers said. “While we may not be a school like St. Bonaventure, up there in rural New York with not a lot going on outside them, they’re playing lacrosse every day. We’re actually here, and can work on team cohesion. We can work on mindset.”
With numerous top returners on the team’s roster, including Hart, Reed, midfielder Rilee Bradshaw and attacker Michaela Connolly, the Dukes have the talent necessary to continue its ascent within the Atlantic 10 in 2021.
Desrosiers’ hopes for the program moving forward include the additions of high quality recruits, consistent finishes atop the A-10 — a conference she calls highly competitive — and, in the end, a championship.
“I’d be lying if I said we didn’t want to be the first lacrosse team here at Duquesne in the next few years to bring home an A-10 championship,” Desrosiers said. “That’s absolutely a goal. It’s why I got hired.”