NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- The top-ranked Christopher Newport women's soccer team ran it's unbeaten streak to 39 games and closed out the second straight undefeated regular season with a 1-1 draw against Salisbury University (8-8-2) on Saturday evening. The Captains will head into postseason action with an overall record of 14-0-2 after Corinne Kulik converted a game-tying goal off an assist from Emma Ricci in the second half. 

Along with extending the record-breaking streak of consecutive games without a loss to 39 games (36-0-3), the Captains also posted the third longest shutout streak in program history. With another 62 minutes of shutout action in Saturday's game, the CNU defense rolled for 578 minutes and 41 seconds before Salisbury finally snapped the run of scoreless soccer against the Captains. That is the longest shutout streak since 2012 (593:53) and falls just under 25 minutes shy of the program record set in 2008 (602:20). 

Salisbury struck first, taking a 1-0 lead in the second half on a goal by Autumn Dougherty in the 63rd minute. A pair of touch passes down the left side from Autumn Conway and Lissette Carniero sprung Dougherty free in the left side of the box and the Sea Gulls forward lifted a shot high into the right side of the goal for a 1-0 lead. 

It served as only the second goal scored against CNU at home this season and it was only the third time the Captains have trailed at home at any point in the last two seasons. The lead would not hold long though, as the resilient CNU attack answered with an equalizer just seven minutes later. 

With renewed energy and urgency, the CNU attack took over following the Salisbury goal. CNU earned a corner kick less than 40 seconds after the score, and Nyah Savage ripped a whistling liner just high of the goal after the free kick. Kulik had back-to-back attempts in the box saved, one by the keeper and a second effort cleared off the line by a Salisbury defender. Then, another corner kick led to a trifecta of dangerous chances for CNU with Savage, Kulik, and Ricci all getting shots toward the goalmouth. 

As CNU mounted the pressure, the dam would finally break in the 70th minute after beautiful midfield play from Abby Harrigan. The heady veteran controlled the ball about 25 yards away from the goal in the midfield, surveying her options left and right. With a defender in front of her, she tactfully played ball position at the top of the box, turning to her left before whisking a pass back to her right for Ricci. Ricci hesitated and then blew past her defender to serve the ball into the center of the box, where Kulik settled the ball, turned and fired a perfectly placed shot from about eight yards out into the upper 90 for the equalizer. 

Down to the final 20 minutes of action, the Captains attack continued to challenge the Salisbury defense, getting hard shots from Sarah Rhiel, Molly Beegle, and a header by Kate eissenberg over the next five minutes. Emily Talotta worked hard on the left side with Kulik, creating countless opportunities in the last stretch of the contest. With less than five minutes remaining, Talotta played a nice ball into the box for Ricci, but her shot was just barely diverted wide off the toes of a Salisbury defender. 

Kulik led the attack with six total shots including five on frame while Rhiel and Ricci each had two shots on goal. CNU had 11 total shots on target as the Salisbury keeper made eight stops and twice a defender made team saves for the visiting team. 

With the tie, the Captains' win streak was halted at 13 games, ranking tied for the fourth longest roll in program history. 

The nationally-ranked Captains' next matchup will come in the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Tournament next weekend where the Captains will look to become only the sixth NCAA Division III program to log an unbeaten streak of 40 games. Stay tuned to C2Csports.com and CNUsports.com as official seeding and opponent information will be released by the conference this week. All 2022 C2C Women's Soccer Championship games will be played at Captains Field with live stats and live video available starting Thursday, November 4.