NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- This week will prove a pivotal stretch for the Christopher Newport women's soccer team, taking on a pair of top teams in the conference with a chance to clinch a spot in the Capital Athletic Conference tournament. It starts on Wednesday evening as the Captains (9-2-1, 3-0-0) host Salisbury University (7-4-2, 2-1-0) at 6:00 pm.
CNU takes on the Sea Gulls with live stats and a live video webcast available at CNUsports.com. The Captains will look to extend their season-long four game winning streak against a team that is unbeaten in their last four games as well, posting four straight shutouts. CNU holds a slight advantage in the all-time series, 7-5-1, but the Sea Gulls have won three out of the last four matchups.
The game will mark the return of Salisbury's head coach Kwame Lloyd. Lloyd coached the Captains from 2001-07, earning three trips to the NCAA Tournament during his tenure. He coached the Captains' first ever women's soccer Hall of Famer, Ashleigh Dota, who graduated as the all-time leading scorer with 88 career points.
This season, Dota's record was toppled for the first time as senior
Emma O'Reilly captured the career record for goals scored and total points. She was named the CAC Co-Offensive Player of the Week on Monday, after helping lead CNU to a pair of wins last week. During the victories, she eclipsed the 100-point plateau, becoming the first CNU player to reach the coveted mark. She remains just three goals shy of 50 for her career and leads a potent Captains attack that is averaging nearly 2.5 goals per game this season.
The Captains are unbeaten in eight of their last nine games, outscoring opponents 24-7 in that span with four shutouts. The dominant defensive effort has been led by a pair of rookies in sweeper
Sam Rabinek and goalkeeper
Haley Casanova. Casanova has five shutouts and boasts a 0.77 goals against average, while Rabinek and the rest of the CNU back line are holding opponents to just 10 shots per game.
Salisbury features an equally impressive defense, allowing just eight goals so far this season, in 13 total games. Junior goalkeeper Michelle Conrad has done the bulk of the time between the pipes, posting a 0.81 goals against average. Rookie Alesha Seifert has seen at least 30 minutes of action in each of the last three games, though, and has allowed just one goal all season in over 400 minutes. Offensively, five players have more than one goal this season in a balanced attack led by Lindsey Andonian. The freshman forward has three goals and five assists for a team-high 11 points.
The game can be seen live at CNUsports.com, with live stats also available.
