The Duke University women’s basketball team called an official end to their 2020-21 season on Friday due to concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
The team had paused all activities on December 16 because of two positive coronavirus tests and also contract tracing within the Blue Devils traveling party. They postponed games with Miami, NC State, and UNC-Wilmington and were scheduled to play Louisville in their next scheduled game on Thursday. Duke becomes the first Power 5 team to cancel their season after starting play. New head coach Kara Lawson, a former player at Tennessee, WNBA standout, and Boston Celtics assistant coach had a 3-1 record early on and had also become the first NCAA Div I coach to win the first three games of a coaching career by 25 or more points. Lawson took over in July for former University of Maine head coach Joanne Palombo-McCallie, who resigned after 13 seasons with the Blue Devils.
Michael Schoenfield, Dukes vice president of public affairs, government relations, and chief communications officer said in a statement, “The student-athletes on the Duke women’s basketball team have made the difficult decision to conclude their current season due to safety concerns. We support their decision, as we have supported the choices made by all student-athletes at Duke during this unprecedented time. Duke will maintain our current schedule of competition in other sports and will continue to observe our rigorous health and safety protocols, which include daily testing for all student-athletes and are based on guidance from leading medical experts.”
