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 more great moments in the future.
 
AT A GLANCE
 
Over the course of a decade from 2006 to 2016, the Christopher Newport volleyball team was automatic against conference competition. Building the fifth longest conference winning streak in the history of collegiate volleyball saw the Captains compile 138 consecutive regular season league matches including their last 109 in the USA South Athletic Conference and first 29 as members of the Capital Athletic Conference. Amidst that run, another impressive streak began on September 18, 2007 when, for nearly a month, the Captains were untouchable, winning a program-record 41 straight sets.
 
BACKSTORY
Coming on the heels of a disappointing finish to the 2006 season that saw the Captains fall, 3-2, in a thrilling five-set conference championship match to Averett, Christopher Newport rebounded in 2007 for the start of what would prove to be an unprecedented run of dominance. Starting with the conference championship in 2007, head coach Lindsay Birch and her volleyball Captains won a record six straight titles before exiting the league in 2013.
 
The beginnings of that impressive stretch was littered with foreshadowing of the success to come. During the season, Christopher Newport would establish team records for wins in a season (33), consecutive victories (20), conference wins (18), and, starting on September 18, consecutive sets won (41). The first three have all been matched or broken during the 12 seasons since, but the latter still stands today as the longest set winning streak in program history.
 
STREAK RECAP
On September 18, 2007 just hours after Christie Kirby and Ryann Lowery were named Conference Defensive Player and Rookie of the Week, respectively, the Captains were were locked in a 2-2 match against North Carolina Wesleyan at home. After opening the season 3-0 in league play, the perfect conference season was already on the line against the Battling Bishops. Kirby kept up her strong defensive season with a match-high 29 digs while Ellen Koch and All-American Brittany Collins each posted impressive numbers to lead the way. Koch ripped 21 kills while hitting .404 in the match and Collins notched a double-double with 36 assists and 12 digs. Using the power of the home crowd behind them, the Captains held on for a 15-8 win in the fifth set and kicked off a record-setting roll.
 
Over the next four weeks, the team hit their stride. Five straight conference shutouts came next with Methodist, Greensboro, Averett, Ferrum, and Shenandoah playing victim. Then, a marquee win on September 28 when the Captains blitzed Division I Hampton University for their first win over the Pirates in nearly two decades. CNU downed their Division I foe 30-15, 30-24, 30-11 and notched a victory over HU for the first time since 1989.
 
After turning heads, the winning continued as the match win streak grew to a record-tying 16 straight matches on October 3 against Salisbury University. Meanwhile, the Captains still had not dropped a single set since that fateful fifth set in mid-September. The Sea Gulls challenged the Captains more than most teams during the run, forcing extra points in two of the three sets but CNU pulled out a 31-29, 30-15, 31-29 win to extend the shutout streak.
 
Setting a new match win streak record with a 3-0 win over Mary Baldwin on their next trip to the floor, the Captains would add four to the previous record as it reached 20 straight wins in the first match on October 13. At the time, it was the second longest win streak for any sport in the history of Christopher Newport athletics. As part of the CNU Invitational, Christopher Newport downed West Virginia Wesleyan (30-27, 30-20, 30-21) to set up a bout with Washington & Lee University. In the Invitational Championship match, the Captains won the first set, 32-30, for the program's 41^st straight set victory, but the Generals snapped the run in the second set, 30-25, and went on to also close out the team's overall win streak as well.
 
POSTSCRIPT
It was a type of dominance unheard of in Christopher Newport lore and set the stage for the Captains to take a step into national prominence. Despite the streak-snapping loss to the Generals, the Captains would go on to win 36 straight sets again as part of 13 straight victories. That means Birch's squad lost just three out of 81 sets spanning 52 days of action during the 2007 season. Over seven weeks. Of a ten week season. 78-3. Unfathomable.
 
As mentioned, the 2007 season was just the start of plenty more to come for the Captains as the most accomplished class in program history exited and the most dominant recruiting classes would follow. Ironically, starting on the very same date two years later the Captains would rip off another 40-set win streak during the 2009 campaign. That would be a part of the first of two perfect seasons against the USA South Athletic Conference in which the Captains went 54-0. The other came in 2011 when CNU Volleyball again didn't lose a set in league play, matching the 54-0 record.
 
Following the 2008 season, head coach Lindsay Birch had quickly established herself as one of the top women's volleyball coaches in the nation after just seven years at the helm. At 29 years old, she was the youngest coach in NCAA history to reach 200 wins when she eclipsed the mark with 201 victories heading into 2009.
 
Christopher Newport volleyball had already asserted itself as the class of the USA South Athletic Conference with six conference championships in the eight years before, but the domination would reach next level status in 2009. CNU advanced to the championship site of the NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Championship for the first time in 2009 in what would be the first of four straight trips to the final eight.
 
The conference winning streak would continue to grow year after year after year until finally it was snapped in 2016 to end a decade-long flawless streak at 138. In sets, the Captains were 414-18. Winning just shy of 96% of their sets against conference opponents for 10 years.
 
Wow.
 
Conference Winning Streak (September 26, 2006-October 7, 2016)
2006: 24-3 (8-0 at start of streak on September 26)
2007: 54-2 (18-0)
2008: 54-1 (18-0)
2009: 54-0 (18-0)
2010: 54-2 (18-0)
2011: 54-0 (18-0)
2012: 33-1 (11-0)
2013: 24-2 (8-0)
2014: 27-2 (9-0)
2015: 27-5 (9-0)
2016: 9-0 (3-0 until streak snapped vs. Salisbury on October 7)
TOTAL SETS RECORD: 414-18 (.958)
TOTAL MATCH RECORD: 138-0 (1.000)

For a full listing of the fall 2020 features published to date, click here.