NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- The Christopher Newport women's soccer team fell off it's perch as the top-ranked team in the nation for the first time in 2022 but continues it's run as one of the top-five ranked teams in the country, sitting No. 3 in both the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 and the D3soccer.com national rankings. On Monday afternoon, the Captains also were celebrated as the regular season champion of the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference and will serve as the top seed in this week's C2C Tournament.
In the team's only game last week, Christopher Newport earned a 1-1 draw against Salisbury University and saw the country's longest active unbeaten streak run to 39 straight games (36-0-3) . The Captains improved to 14-0-2 on the season and capped the second consecutive undefeated regular season under the direction of head coach
Jamie Gunderson.
CNU earned two first-place votes in the D3soccer.com Top 25 and accumulated 908 total points in the rankings. Misericordia and Johns Hopkins leaped ahead of the Captains and are ranked No. 1 and 2, respectively.
Monday afternoon, the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference announced the seeding for the annual championship tournament which, this year, will be hosted by the third-ranked Captains. Seeding was determined using the Massey Ratings and Christopher Newport earned a first-round bye as one of the top two seeds in the event. UC Santa Cruz collected the other bye as the #2 seed, while Mary Washington, Salisbury, Pratt, and Finlandia completed the seeding in order.
The C2C Tournament will be played at Christopher Newport starting Thursday, November 3 at 4:00 p.m. when #4 Salisbury takes on #5 Pratt followed by the other quarterfinal matchup at 7:00 p.m. between #3 Mary Washington and #6 Finlandia. On Friday, the semifinals begin with #1 CNU hosting the winner of game one followed by #2 UC Santa Cruz battling the winner of game two. The championship game will then be held at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, November 6.
The Captains currently boast one of the nation's top defensive units, ranking eighth in the country in goals-against average with a 0.38 mark through the first 16 games. The defense ranks 14th nationally in shutout percentage, with 11 clean sheets in 16 games for a 68.8 percent rate, while also ranking top-ten in the country in save percentage with an .889 mark. While the defense has anchored the Captains' to another banner season, the offense currently ranks second in the league in scoring (1.88 goals per game) and total points (85).
Live stats and live video will be available for all five C2C Tournament games at Captains Field. Links to both can be found on the women's soccer schedule at CNUsports.com.
UNITED SOCCER COACHES TOP 25
NCAA DIII WOMEN - NATIONAL - POLL 8 - NOVEMBER 1, 2022
| Rank |
School |
Prev |
W-L-T |
| 1 |
Misericordia University |
2 |
16-0-1 |
| 2 |
Johns Hopkins University |
3 |
15-0-2 |
| 3 |
Christopher Newport University |
1 |
14-0-2 |
| 4 |
Case Western Reserve University |
4 |
14-0-1 |
| 5 |
Messiah University |
5 |
15-1-2 |
| 6 |
William Smith College |
6 |
11-1-4 |
| 7 |
Carnegie Mellon University |
9 |
12-1-2 |
| 8 |
Amherst College |
10 |
14-2-0 |
| 9 |
Trinity University (Texas) |
8 |
18-0-1 |
| 10 |
Calvin University |
11 |
15-0-1 |
| 11 |
Williams College |
13 |
10-3-2 |
| 12 |
Montclair State University |
12 |
16-1-0 |
| 13 |
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor |
14 |
15-0-1 |
| 13 |
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse |
16 |
17-1-1 |
| 15 |
Loras College |
18 |
14-0-3 |
| 16 |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
17 |
14-4-2 |
| 17 |
Wartburg College |
7 |
15-1-2 |
| 18 |
Emory University |
15 |
11-4-0 |
| 19 |
Trinity College |
23 |
7-3-6 |
| 20 |
SUNY Cortland |
21 |
12-1-3 |
| 21 |
The College of New Jersey |
22 |
14-2-2 |
| 22 |
Tufts University |
RV |
9-4-2 |
| 23 |
Rowan University |
19 |
11-0-4 |
| 24 |
Middlebury College |
20 |
10-5-1 |
| 25 |
Babson College |
25 |
13-3-1 |
