BUENA VISTA, Va. -- Just hours before taking the field against Southern Virginia University, the Christopher Newport women's soccer team was elevated to the top spot in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25, earning the number one designation before capturing a 3-0 victory on the road Tuesday night. The Captains improved to 11-0-1 overall this season and extended the team's record-breaking unbeaten streak to 57 straight games without a loss.
The Captains earned the number one ranking for the third consecutive season after finishing the 2021 campaign as the top-ranked team and carrying the top billing through the entirety of the 2022 regular season. This year, Christopher Newport started the year ranked No. 6 and has steadily climbed to as high as No. 2 where they sat for the last three weeks behind top-ranked Carnegie Mellon. This week, though, the voters flipped the two top-ranked teams and head coach
Jamie Gunderson's squad secured the number one ranking.
With the voters deciding where the Captains ranked off the field, the squad took care of business on it against the Knights on Tuesday with the team's fifth consecutive shutout victory. For the second time this season, the Captains have strung together five straight games without allowing a goal, posting a shutout streak of over 479 minutes played.
CNU scored three goals to hand Southern Virginia its first loss in nearly three weeks, dropping the Knights to 6-5-1 overall. Sophomore midfielder
Kyleigh Gough had a hand in all three, starting the play for each tally with one coming in the first half and two more in the second stanza. In the first half, her pass down the right side sprung
Corinne Kulik free beyond the defense to create a 3-on-1 opportunity for the Captains attack. Kulik worked toward the goal before a centering pass to
Sarah Smith for a hard shot on target. The Knights goalkeeper made the save, but the ball trickled away and
Hanna Heaton was there on the back end to put away the rebound for the first goal of the match.
In the second half, Gough again started the play for the Captains when she found a seam up the middle of the field. After crossing through the midfield circle, she saw
Katy Bronski streaking by her defender on the left side and slotted a perfect through ball between Southern Virginia defenders to her teammate. Bronski reached the ball at the same time as a sliding goalkeeper, but the Knights netminder could not clear the ball against the challenging Captain and Bronski stuck with it, putting away the second effort for the score.
Bronski found the back of the net for the second straight game and third time this season. It secured the seventh multi-goal performance for the CNU offense this season in 12 games played.
Finally, with the final five minutes winding down, CNU drew a foul about 25 yards away from the goal on the left side. Standing over the ball for the restart with just under three minutes to go, Gough rolled a short pass to Heaton who unleashed a smoldering shot with her right foot that was too much for the goalkeeper to handle, bouncing off of the save and into the back of the net.
Heaton now has three goals scored in her first year with the Captains with two holding up as game-winning strikes.
The defense, led by rookie goalkeeper
Amy Sidaway, held down an offense that was averaging 1.91 goals per game coming into the game without a score by making three saves in the contest. The Captains' defense allowed just five total shots as
Reanna Slater and
Nyah Savage played the full 90 minutes on the back line in front of the freshman while
Jackie Stallard added an 85-minute performance as well.
The Captains will return home for three straight games in Newport News, starting with a 4:00 p.m. kickoff against Mary Washington this Saturday, October 14.
