VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- Receiving votes in the D3soccer.com National Rankings in week two, the unbeaten Christopher Newport women's soccer team will look to continue their early season roll on Wednesday night at Virginia Wesleyan College (2-4-0). Kickoff is slated for 7:30 pm with live stats and video available as the Captains hit the road for the first of three straight and seven of the next nine away from Captains Field.
CNU has started the year with a 4-0-1 overall mark, the best start to any season since 2000 when the Captains were 8-0 to open the year. The all-time series against the Marlins favors VWC, as CNU is just 5-11-2 against their cross-water rivals since the series began in 1997.
The Captains and Marlins should be very familiar with eachother's game plan heading into Wednesday night's tilt, as each played in the other's tournament in the first two weekends. First, CNU played in the Atlantic Orthopedic Specialists Classic hosted by Virginia Wesleyan, and then the Marlins returned a trip to the Captains Classic for a pair this weekend.
Leading the offense for Christopher Newport this season is reigning CAC Player of the Year
Victoria Perry, who has scored three goals in the young season. Rookie
Kayla Locklear and sophomore
Kaylie Deshler have each added a pair of goals for the potent offense, while the defense has been extremely impressive in the early going. Playing in front of junior goalkeeper
Haley Casanova, the Captains defense has allowed just one goal in the first five games in 470 minutes of action.
Junior
Sam Rabinek and sophomores
Kira Warner,
Carly Melkus and
Danielle Pratt have helped limit opponents to just 41 total shots, and just 18 on-goal. Casanova has played all but one game in goal for head coach
Dan Weiler, posting four shutouts and leading the way for a team goals against average of 0.19.
The Marlins feature a young roster in 2015, including a rookie goalkeeper, Alexis Wheeler, who has played all 540 minutes of the season for head coach Jeff Bowers. Rookie Madison Atkins has started all six games up top for the Marlins and has a pair of assists while leading the team in total shots. Five different players have registered one goal this season, including junior Brittany Wentzel, who also has an assist to lead the offense with three points.
Following Wednesday's matchup with Virginia Wesleyan, the Captains will travel to Illinois for a pair of games against 2014 NCAA participants. CNU will take on nationally-ranked Wheaton College and then move on to face the University of Chicago on back-to-back days this weekend.
