SALISBURY, Md. -- Back on top, the nationally-ranked Christopher Newport women's soccer team celebrated the fourth conference championship in five years on Sunday afternoon with a 1-0 win over #3-seed UC Santa Cruz (6-9-2) in overtime at the Gerry DiBartolo Soccer Complex at Salisbury University. The Captains avenged a loss to UC Santa Cruz in last year's title game with a thrilling golden goal in overtime when Hanna Heaton crossed in front of the gal mouth to Molly Seventko for a header finish and the win. 

The game-winning goal came on a textbook offensive play started back at midfield on a restart, where senior Kyleigh Gough played a quick ball to the outside for junior Bella DiTommaso. DiTommaso then took one touch and slid a beautiful ball through a pair of Santa Cruz defenders to find Katy Bronski near the top of the box. Bronski waited for Heaton to make her run and then played the ball into space right at the corner flag where Heaton took one touch, sending a perfectly-sized cross into the middle of the box for Seventko, who hammered home the header and sent the Captains into a championship-caliber frenzy. 

The goal came with just over five minutes remaining in the first overtime period and sealed a 1-0 victory for the Captains. Christopher Newport improved to 14-1-3 with the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Championship and will advance to the 2025 NCAA Division III Women's Soccer Championship via the automatic qualifying berth for the conference. 

CNU has now won four conference championships in five seasons under head coach Jamie Gunderson and the team has collected seven league titles in the last nine seasons dating back to 2016. Overall, it is the 13th conference championship trophy secured by the CNU women's soccer team since the program began in 1997.

Playing shutout soccer for over 94 minutes, the Christopher Newport defense held on for the 13th shutout of the season with Amy Sidaway playing full time in goal for the Captains. She made five saves and was named the C2C Championship Most Valuable Player for her performance in two games for the Captains. She was joined on the All-Tournament Team by Hanna Heaton, Molly Seventko, and Kyleigh Gough.

Seventko nearly had the Captains ahead, 1-0, in the very early portion of the game when she found the back of the net in the 10th minute of action, but was whistled a hair offsides to nullify the score. UC Santa Cruz also had a close chance, but Katy Bronski made a key defensive play to keep the Banana Slugs off the board. On a corner kick in the 23rd minute, the ball found Tatiana Fernandez for a look inside the box, but Bronski stood tall with a defensive save on the left side of the goal mouth. 

In total, Sidaway finished the game with five saves including three in the first half and two in the second. The CNU defense did not allow a shot on goal in the overtime period. Santa Cruz finished with an 18-11 edge in total shots including a 6-4 disparity in shots on-goal. 

Christopher Newport now awaits the decision of the NCAA Division III Women's Soccer Championship Committee to find out where and against whom they will face in the first round of next weekend's tournament. A selection show and bracket release will be available on NCAA.com at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, November 10. 
 

2025 C2C Women's Soccer All-Tournament Team

Christopher Newport
Amy Sidaway (MVP)
Hanna Heaton
Molly Seventko
Kyleigh Gough 

UC Santa Cruz
Kristi Truong
Camille Anneet
Emilie Brack

Mary Washington
Taylor Garofalo
Naomi Knight

Salisbury
Alex Jankowski 
Lauren Chesney