Live Video
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. -- Remaining in the No. 1 position in the latest NFHCA National Coaches Poll, the top-ranked Christopher Newport field hockey team will wrap up the regular season on Wednesday at 4 p.m. when the Captains square off with Mary Washington at the Battleground Turf Field.
For the fifth straight week, CNU held onto the No. 1 spot in the national rankings, which were released by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association on Tuesday morning. The squad secured all 19 first-place votes for the fourth week in a row while notching a perfect score of 475. Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins remained second in the poll, while Babson, Salisbury, and Tufts rounded out the top-five.
Along with their top-five victories over Johns Hopkins and Salisbury, the Captains have five other wins against teams currently listed in the NFHCA National Coaches Poll. Earlier this year, CNU knocked off No. 11 Stevens, No. 14 Rowan, No. 16 Williams, No. 22 Washington and Lee, and No. 24 York (Pa.).
Christopher Newport will polish off the regular season on Wednesday with the team's third trip to Mary Washington's Battleground Turf Field this year. Earlier in the summer, the Captains had a pair of neutral-site tests at the facility after knocking off Johns Hopkins, 5-3, on August 31 and Messiah, 1-0, in an overtime shootout on September 20.
CNU is coming off of a 3-0 victory over No. 14 Rowan on Saturday, which bumped the team to 16-0 on the season. Against the Profs,
Lindsey Loar scored all three goals, making her the first Captain to net a hat-trick against a nationally-ranked opponent. She also became just the fifth player in program history with three career hat-tricks and only the sixth with two in a single season.
Along with Loar's historic eruption,
Courtney Hughlett handed out a pair of assists, including her 13th of the year. That moved her into a tie for the top spot on the program's all-time single-season charts, matching her own performance from last year as well as Haylie Black's 13-assist showcase in 2006.
In addition to climbing the school's single-season assists list, Hughlett also moved one helper away from tying CNU's all-time career record. The junior All-American now has 32 assists during her decorated tenure, which places her one shy of CNU Hall of Famer Belle Tunstall's program standard of 33, which she set from 2011-14.
Overall this season, Hughlett ranks fourth in the NCAA with 13 assists, while
Lily Kerr is first in the country in goals-against-average (0.34) and second in save percentage (.875). As a team, CNU leads the nation in scoring defense, allowing just 0.36 goals per contest. Helping out on the back line, junior
Kendall Gibson has started all 16 games and boasts a pair of defensive saves, while fellow standouts
Kelly Via and
Morgan Shealer lead all Captains in minutes played this year with 940 and 912, respectively.
Sitting at 11-5 on the season, Mary Washington comes into the midweek showdown on a four-game winning streak, including a 12-0 triumph at Transylvania on Sunday. The Eagles have not allowed a goal during its recent four-game run and boast seven total shutouts this year. Meanwhile, on the opposite side, the team has only been blanked once this season and has scored multiple goals on 12 occasions, including nationally-ranked showdowns with No. 12 Shenandoah and No. 15 Lynchburg.
On an individual level, Mackenzie Proffitt leads Mary Washington with 13 goals and 33 points, while Grayson Scott has 10 strikes of her own. In her career, Scott has 46 goals, which ranks 14th among all active Division III players. Additionally, on the defensive side, Tori Winans has a .709 save percentage and 1.60 goals-against-average.
In 26 previous meetings between the two programs, CNU holds a 20-6 edge in the all-time series. Last year, the Captains picked up a 3-0 win in Newport News. During that contest,
Caroline Hughlett posted three points for the victors, while Winans had 19 saves for Mary Washington.
---ISH---
