NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - Following a 30-3 season and the first National Championship in program history, Christopher Newport University has been ranked the #1 team in the country heading into the 2023-2024 season. The Top 25 pre-season poll was released Thursday by D3hoops.com. The Captains, who return 12 players including four starters from last season's title team, received 24 of 25 first-place votes.

Click HERE for the complete poll.

Christopher Newport University will begin defense of its first National Championship on Wednesday, November 8th, when the Captains travel to play at Hampden-Sydney College. The Tigers are ranked 8th in the pre-season poll. The Captains' home debut will come one week later, on Wednesday, November 15th, when CNU hosts 14th-ranked Randolph-Macon College in a 7:30 p.m. start at the Freeman Center. The Captains will also have an early-season matchup with another Top 15 program in Johns Hopkins, ranked 12th in the poll. The Captains and Blue Jays will square off at the Freeman Center on November 18th at 4:00 p.m., giving CNU three Top 15 opponents in the first five games of the season.

The upcoming season will be the 56th in the history of the program, and Head Coach John Krikorian is heading into his 13th season leading the Captains. Last year his team made history by beating Mount Union in the National Championship game in Fort Wayne, Indiana, 74-72. The Captains finished the remarkable season with a record of 30-3, and Krikorian was selected the National Coach of the Year. He has now recorded an overall record of 290-65 (.817).

The 2023-2024 Captains roster features two returning All-Americans in seniors Jahn Hines and Trey Barber. Hines, a Norview High School product, last year became the 34th CNU player in history to score 1,000 points or more, reaching the lofty plateau during CNU's National Semifinal victory over Swarthmore in Fort Wayne. Hines has now recorded 1,029 points in 63 games played for a career average of 16.3 points per game. Barber, who hit the game-winning shot in the final second of the National Championship game, blocked 77 shots last year in 28 games played (2.75 per game), and ranked 11th in the nation in blocks per game. The Captains' big man, from Woodbridge, Va., was second on the team in scoring with 13.5 points per game while knocking down 55.3 percent of his shots from the field.