FREDERICKSBURG, Va. -- Capturing a historic win for the program in dominating fashion, the 20th-ranked Christopher Newport women's tennis team shut out the 21st-ranked University of Mary Washington on Saturday afternoon, 9-0. Going on the road to topple the Eagles (6-6) for the first time in program history, the Captains improved to 10-5 overall behind multi-win days from Raine Weis, Tessa Trate, Mia Linam, Kylie Schaefer, and Samantha Robertson.

Ending a run of 32 straight defeats at the hands of their conference rivals, the Captains earned the first win over Mary Washington in the all-time series, which dates back to the 1981 season. Since, the two teams separated by just over two hours of real estate have met up in 21 different seasons including multiple matchups in each of the last eight completed seasons (not including the 2020 CoVID shortened year). The two have been in the same league since 2013-14 and the Eagles have held the advantage with Christopher Newport chipping away toward the first win multiple times. Last season, the Captains scored three team points against Mary Washington in the regular season before setting a conference record with three points against them in the conference tournament. 

But not until Saturday had CNU earned the much anticipated victory. The Captains went on the road for the win, where the Eagles have not lost against a conference opponent since April 7, 2002 when Salisbury captured a 6-3 win in Fredericksburg.

The decisive 9-0 win came after Christopher Newport swept doubles to get out to an early 3-0 lead. Kicking off the win, rookie Kylie Schaefer paired with veteran Megan Bauer at No. 3 for an 8-1 win over Jacey Copeland and Linda Dimitroff. Soon after, Tessa Trate and Raine Weis earned an 8-5 win at No. 1 against Amanda Hagino and Hana Kimmey. The battle between regionally-ranked doubles pairs favored the Captains as Trate and Weis, ranked fourth, took down the sixth-ranked tandem in the Atlantic Region. 

Rounding out the doubles sweep was a hard-fought 8-7 (8-6) win at No. 2 for Mia Linam and Samantha Robertson. The CNU pair outlasted Emily Beckner and Addison Felts for the win. 

With the lead in hand heading into singles, the Captains pulled within one win of clinching when Schaefer raced through the win at No. 6 against Riley Smith (6-1, 6-2). Then, it was the top line victory from Raine Weis that clinched the match. Facing Hagino, the 16th-ranked singles player in the region, Weis won in straight sets for the historic victory (6-3, 6-4). 

CNU won the first set in all six singles matches and captured four straight-set victories. After the team victory was settled, Linam earned a 7-5, 6-3 win over Felts at No. 3. Then Trate defeated regionally-ranked Hana Kimmey at No. 2 after a second-set tiebreaker (6-1, 7-6 (5)). Finally, Robertson and Kiersten Chang each won their third sets 10-8 to complete the sweep. First, Chang took down Linda Dimitroff (6-0, 4-6, 10-8) at No. 5 before Robertson wrapped up the day with a win over Beckner (6-3, 2-6, 10-8) at No. 4. 

Following the momentous win, the Captains will return to action at home to close out the regular season with two more matches. CNU will host Salisbury on Saturday, April 20 and Marymount on Sunday, April 21, before traveling back to Fredericksburg for the C2C Tournament on May 3-5.