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Duke Women Ranked No. 1 In Final AP Poll For First Time
March 15, 2004
DURHAM, N.C. - For the first time in school history, Duke women's basketball will conclude the Associated Press rankings No. 1 in the final poll. The Blue Devils received 43 of 47 first place votes on Monday from a national media panel, which broke Connecticut's string of four straight No. 1 finishes in the poll.
"This is a very nice honor for our program, said Duke Head Coach Gail Goestenkors. "To have the Associated Press voters give us great respect like this shows you what kind of season we have had and how well we are playing. Now we have to just live up to the ranking they have given us. Granted it is nice to be number one going into the NCAA Tournament, but we really want to finish the postseason with that ranking also."
Duke (27-3) is the No. 1 seed in the Mideast Region and will kick off the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, March 21 against Northwestern State (24-6) at 2:30 p.m. in Cameron Indoor Stadium. It marks the fourth straight year the Blue Devils have been a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, which is the longest current streak in Division I women's basketball.
"It's an awesome accomplishment for us now that I know this is the first time we've finished No. 1," said Iciss Tillis. "I wouldn't say it was a goal because we're always trying to finish as high as we can. But it shows that all the hard work and effort has paid off."
Duke has won 10 straight contests and is coming off winning its fifth straight ACC Championship on March 8 against ninth-ranked North Carolina. Senior's Alana Beard, Tillis and Vicki Krapohl became the first class in the 51 years of ACC men's and women's basketball history to win eight ACC titles in a four year span as Duke also won four straight ACC Regular Season titles.
Duke moved to No. 1 last week and has been ranked atop the poll a total of five weeks this season. Overall, Duke has not been ranked lower than No. 4 in the Associated Press poll for the past 39 straight weeks.
