SALISBURY, Md. -- With only four games left on the regular season schedule, the top-ranked Christopher Newport women's soccer team faces just two opponents the rest of the way. Kicking off a four-game swing with two apiece against Salisbury and Mary Washington, the Captains (11-0-1) will travel to Salisbury University for a mid-week matchup on Wednesday with first touch scheduled at 4:00 p.m.

The Captains enter the match riding a 35-game unbeaten streak including all 12 games this season. With a ten-game win streak entering Wednesday afternoon, the CNU women held their position atop both the United Soccer Coaches and D3soccer.com Top 25 polls. It is already the third win streak of 10 games or more since head coach Jamie Gunderson took over the reins to start the 2021 season -- prior, the Captains program only had four total 10-game winning streaks since the inception of the program in 1997. 

CNU will take on upset-minded Salisbury, who has a 7-6-0 overall record this year highlighted by an early 3-2 win over national power TCNJ this season. The Sea Gulls also dropped a tight 1-0 decision to nationally-ranked Virginia Wesleyan though the home team has stumbled of late, suffering losses in four of the last six matches. 

The all-time series favors the Captains 17-6-3 including three straight wins heading into Wednesday afternoon. CNU outscored the Sea Gulls, 12-1, in three mettings last season on route to the program's first national championship. The last Salisbury win came in 2019 in a 5-2 setback, but CNU is 10-1-2 against the Sea Gulls since 2013. 

Defensively, the Captains continue to thwart opposing attacks at an impressive rate with eight shutouts in 12 games this season. That mark ranks 18th nationally in shutout percentage while the back line and goalkeepers boast the nation's 13th-best goals-against average (0.417). Sophomore Jaya Daniel, the C2C Defensive Player of the Week, has done the bulk of the work between the pipes with a 0.56 goals-against average and an .865 save percentage. 

Jill McDonald, Kate Eissenberg, and Ellie Cox have each eclipsed 1,000 minutes played (out of a possible 1,080) this season to lead the defensive efforts. Re Slater has also returned to the starting lineup while Sarah Rhiel and Nyah Savage have been pivotal players for the dominant defense. 

Offensively, CNU is led by Sarah Smith with 19 points on nine goals and one assist this season. Emma Ricci has nine points on three goals and three assists while a pair of freshman, Kyleigh Gough and Molly Seventko, have each chipped in six points. 

Salisbury will counter with an offense that is scoring nearly two goals per game led by Autumn Dougherty. She has 17 points on eight goals and one assist including three gamewinners. Kyla Holt has started all 13 games and adds eight points on three goals and two assists, while Katy Poltrack has six points on three goals this year. 

Following Wednesday's action, CNU will face back-to-back games against Mary Washington on October 19 and 22 before the regular season finale on October 29 against Salisbury. 

UNITED SOCCER COACHES DIVISION III TOP 25  - POLL 5 - OCTOBER 11, 2022

Rank	School	Prev	W-L-T
1	Christopher Newport University	1	11-0-1
2	Messiah University	2	10-0-2
3	Misericordia University	3	10-0-1
4	Johns Hopkins University	4	9-0-2
5	William Smith College	5	9-1-2
6	Case Western Reserve University	7	10-0-0
7	Wartburg College	6	11-0-2
8	Trinity University (Texas)	8	11-0-1
9	Calvin University	9	12-0-0
10	Williams College	11	8-2-1
11	Carnegie Mellon University	13	7-1-2
12	The College of New Jersey	15	10-1-1
13	Montclair State University	10	11-1-0
14	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	19	10-3-1
15	University of Mary Hardin-Baylor	14	10-0-1
16	Amherst College	22	9-2-0
17	University of Wisconsin-La Crosse	17	11-1-1
18	Virginia Wesleyan University	21	10-1-1
19	Babson College	12	8-2-1
20	Tufts University	18	7-1-1
21	Trinity College	16	5-0-6
22	North Central College	20	9-1-2
23	Loras College	23	9-0-3
24	Franklin & Marshall College	24	7-1-3
25	Pomona-Pitzer Colleges	25	8-1-2

Records shown are through games of Oct. 9, 2022

Also receiving votes: Rowan University, SUNY Cortland, Illinois Wesleyan University, Emory University, University of Puget Sound, Brandeis University, McDaniel College