NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Heading into the final game of the regular season on Saturday evening, the second-ranked Christopher Newport women's soccer team will host Salisbury University for Senior Night at Captains Field. The Captains are riding a 40-match unbeaten streak at home as they take on the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference foes from Maryland with kickoff scheduled for 5:00 p.m.
Prior to the game, head coach
Jamie Gunderson and the rest of the CNU Women's Soccer team will honor the careers of five seniors. In alphabetical order,
Hannah Calliott,
Ellie Cox,
Jaya Daniel,
Reanna Slater, and
Maddie Rusinko will be playing in their final home regular season game after helping lift the nationally-ranked Captains to one of the most dominant runs in NCAA soccer history over the course of their careers.
For fans unable to attend in person, live stats and a live video webcast will be available at CNUsports.com. Admission to the game is free of charge.
With a 5-1 win over Methodist earlier this week, Christopher Newport improved to 13-0-2 overall and added another win to an NCAA Division III record 82-game streak of consecutive games without a loss. CNU is now 73-0-9 since the first game of the aforementioned seniors careers started in 2021. Salisbury is 5-4-7 overall this season after suffering a 1-0 setback to Mary Washington on October 19.
The Captains and Sea Gulls are meeting for the 31st time in the all-time series between the two programs with Christopher Newport holding a 20-6-4 advantage. CNU has pieced together eight straight games without a loss to Salisbury dating back to the 2019 season (6-0-2).
This season, CNU is leaning on one of the most dominant defenses in the country, ranking 10th nationally in goals-against average (0.33). Slater has anchored the back line with grad student
Nyah Savage and sophomore
Bella DiTommaso to lock down opponents with 11 shutouts in 15 games played. Sophomore
Amy Sidaway has led the way in goal with 13 starts, logging a 12-0-1 record with a 0.32 GAA and .818 save percentage.
Offensively, junior midfielder
Hanna Heaton added two more goals against Methodist as she extended her team leading scoring total to 35 points on 12 goals and 11 assists this season. She has factored into 23 of CNU's 40 goals scored this season (58 percent) and has joined an elite group of Captains to score 35 points in a single season. Helping add depth on attack have been a pair of fifth-year players in
Corinne Kulik and
Emma Ricci. Kulik has five goals and three assists while Ricci has three goals and five assists and the duo have combined for three game-winning goals this season.
Salisbury will bring in the league's third leading defense in terms of goals-against average, allowing 0.81 goals per game and rankings in the top-75 in Division III. Hayle Foreman has led the way in goal with nine starts and three shutouts this year while Riley Pinato has added two shutouts in seven starts. Ava Wheeler and Ashley Pantano are in double figures in scoring with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Wheeler has scored 5 goals with two helpers while Pantano has scored four times with two assists.
Following the regular season finale on Saturday night, the Captains will take an extended break until the Coast-To-Coast Athetic Conference Championship in Santa Cruz, California. The tournament will be played from November 7-10 at UC Santa Cruz.
