Defending National Champion CNU Women's Soccer Ranked No. 1 in United Soccer Coaches Preseason Poll

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Becoming just the second team in Christopher Newport athletics history to open the season ranked No. 1 in the nation, defending national champion women's soccer will start the 2022 campaign as the preseason favorite according to the United Soccer Coaches National Rankings.

After a dominant undefeated run through the 2021 season, the Captains captured the program's first-ever NCAA Division III National Championship in women's soccer and concluded the year ranked No. 1 in the nation. Maintaining that spot atop the poll, the 2022 CNU Women's Soccer team joins only the 2012 CNU Volleyball team as teams to earn the top spot in the preseason national rankings.

The Captains were 22-0-1 during the magical run in head coach Jamie Gunderson's first season, featuring one of the most well-rounded lineups in the nation as a stalwart offensive and defensive juggernaut. Albeit in needing to replace a pair of legendary players -- Riley Cook and Haley Eiser -- the remainder of the starting 11 returns to the defending national champions this Fall.

Leading the returning group are a pair of All-Americans on both sides of the field. Senior defender Jill McDonald will return to anchor a defense that allowed only seven goals last season in one of the most impressive defensive showings in Division III history. The NCAA Championship's Most Outstanding Defensive Player and an All-American center back will be joined by all three of her counterparts on the back line with Sarah Rhiel, Nyah Savage, and Re Slater all returning for the dominant defense.

On the other end of the field, senior Sarah Smith also collected All-American honors in 2021 after ranking second on the team in scoring during her first season in the Royal Blue and Silver. She scored the game-winning goal in the national championship game and finished the year with 21 points and five gamewinners. In the midfield, fifth-year senior Abby Harrigan is back in the fold after earning All-Region honors last season. The veteran has started 60 games in three seasons with CNU and will be flanked by impact players like Emma Ricci, Emily Talotta, and Jessica Zimmermann.

The 2022 schedule has been posted online and will be officially released later this week. The Captains will open the 2022 season with a pair of neutral site games at Virginia Wesleyan, taking on the College of Saint Benedict on Friday, September 2 at 5:00 p.m. in the opener.

UNITED SOCCER COACHES TOP 25 DIVISION III

NATIONAL - PRE-SEASON POLL - AUGUST 2, 2022

Rank	School	Prev	W-L-T
1	Christopher Newport University	1	21-0-1
2	The College of New Jersey	2	20-1-2
3	Loras College	3	21-1-2
4	Wesleyan University	4	18-2-2
5	William Smith College	5	19-2-1
6	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	6	22-2-1
7	Misericordia University	7	20-2-0
8	University Of Chicago	8	15-3-4
9	Johns Hopkins University	9	16-2-2
10	University Of Scranton	10	18-1-1
11	Washington University (Mo.)	11	15-1-3
12	Case Western Reserve University	12	16-2-2
13	University of Wisconsin-La Crosse	13	16-4-4
14	Centre College	14	17-2-2
15	Carnegie Mellon University	15	13-6-1
16	Trinity University (Texas)	16	15-3-2
17	Messiah University	17	17-3-1
18	Amherst College	18	15-2-2
19	McDaniel College	19	18-2-1
20	Hamilton College	20	14-3-2
21	Brandeis University	21	12-5-2
22	Emory University	22	12-5-3
23	Middlebury College	23	13-4-3
24	Pomona-Pitzer Colleges	24	16-1-3
25	SUNY Geneseo	25	16-3-1