While Christopher Newport looks forward to the return of intercollegiate competitions, our friends at TowneBank are partnering with CNUsports.com to spend some time throughout the fall semester looking back at a few of the more memorable moments in the storied history of the athletic department. Over the course of the next three months, the Captains will honor the anniversary of three dozen record-setting accomplishments, championship-clinching victories, and other historic events in order to celebrate the past while preparing for even more great moments in the future.
 
AT A GLANCE
 
The 2002 season of Christopher Newport women's volleyball history will long be remembered as the first in the storied career of head coach Lindsay Birch. On October 23, 2002, it was another first-year member of the roster that made headlines, however, as rookie Amber Bradshaw obliterated the record books with an artful performance behind the service line. Taking on North Carolina Wesleyan College in conference action at the Freeman Center, Bradshaw torched the Battling Bishops for a program and conference record 16 aces.
 
BACKSTORY
As a star player for the Captains in 2001, Birch (then Sheppard), would be named Conference Player of the Year as she helped guide Ken Shibuya's squad to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. Following her graduation, director of athletics C.J. Woollum handed the program over to the outstanding talent who had gleaned as much as she could from Shibuya before his exit for Juniata and, eventually, Stanford where he would eventually go on to serve as an assistant coach when the Cardinal captured the Division I men's volleyball national championship.
 
While she was an unproven commodity on paper, Woollum proved his eye for coaching talent once again as Birch immediately formed a nationally-competitive Division III program from the very beginning. It started with the development of the 2002 squad led by Nina Richardson, Mary Whiting, Oksana Boukhtina, and a pair of freshman twins in Erin and Amber Bradshaw.
 
The early portion of the 2002 schedule included some bumps in the road as Birch found her footing as the head coach. The Captains were just 5-5 after the first ten matches, but once the calendar turned to conference play, CNU never looked back. Birch's team won the next 16 bouts and 19 of 22 to finish out the year with a 24-8 record in her first year.  
 
Amid that 16-match win streak came a home pairing with N.C. Wesleyan where Bradshaw took aim at a record that had stood since the Reagan administration.  
 
GAME RECAP
In a match that lasted just over 90 minutes, rookie outside hitter Amber Bradshaw did her part in ushering things along quickly against the Bishops. The Captains would win the match 30-12, 32-34, 30-9, 30-27 in four sets and improved to 16-5 overall, 9-0 in conference play.
 
Over the course of the four-set match, Bradshaw terrorized the Bishops lineup with dart after hardwood-destined dart from the service line. She was on fire, torching the conference opponent for 16 aces to set a conference record for most service aces in a single game. Not only did she join the school and conference record book for her effort, she also shot into the top-five in Division III history.
 
With 16 aces and just two errors behind the line, Bradshaw's masterful performance etched her name in NCAA volleyball history forever. She accomplished a feat that no Division I or Division II women's volleyball player has to this day when she record 16 aces, and is the only freshman at any level to score 16 or more points off aces in a four-set match.
 
Overall, she is tied for fifth among Division III players in a four-set match and among freshman, one of only four who have ever reached the 16-ace plateau. She joins record-holder Liz Brewer (Concordia-Chicago), Kelly Landry (Plymouth State), and Katie Gwiazdowski (Notre Dame (MD)) in the elite club of first-year stars. Landry and Gwiazdowski each also reached the level in 2002 when Landry scored 16 aces against Pine Manor College and Gwiazdowski managed 17 against Chestnut Hill just weeks before the Captains' freshman marked her place in history.
 
The Christopher Newport record was set in 1986 by Lu Long against Elizabeth City. The over 16-year old record finally fell to Bradshaw, who has held fast to the top mark for the next 17 seasons. She topped off her impressive performance with 9 kills, falling just shy of a double-double while ranking second on the team in the match.
 
POSTSCRIPT
Bradshaw and twin sister Erin were steady fixtures in the Captains lineup for all four years of their tenure starting in 2002. Amber went on to join Lindsay Birch as the only players in program history to notch 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in a career, and the two were later joined by Cory Harris in the elite club. Her excellent career was marked by three All-Conference certificates and she concluded her tenure among the best to ever play at Christopher Newport.
 
She still stands second all-time in career kills with 1,554 and tops in total attempts with 4,809. She graduated the all-time leader in aces with 365, powered by a 96-ace season in her rookie campaign which was bolstered by the record-breaking 16 against the Bishops. She still ranks second behind only Hall of Famer Brittany Collins while her sister Erin sits in fourth with 268 terminating serves.
 
Amber also still sits in the top-ten for digs, and is one only two players in program history that ranks in the top-ten in kills, aces, and digs. The other is Birch. Both celebrated successful first seasons for the Captains in 2002; Bradshaw as a player and Birch as a coach.
 
For a full listing of the fall 2020 features published to date, click here.