LILBURN, Ga. -- The Christopher Newport women's basketball team will start the year ranked No. 13 according to the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Division III Preseason Coaches Poll. The Captains reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament a year ago and finished the year with an overall record of 24-5.
At the end of the 2025-26 campaign, the Christopher Newport women's basketball team ranked No. 16 in the final WBCA poll after climbing to as high as No. 7 during the year. The Captains held a spot in the WBCA poll from wire to wire and stayed in the rankings after defeating Gettysburg College in the first round of the postseason tournament, 74-62, before bowing out at No. 3 Washington and Lee in the second round, 61-55.
Heading into the 14th season under head coach
Bill Broderick, the Captains have seven conference championships in a row and have advanced to the NCAA Tournament in ten straight. CNU has continued its reign as a perennial power in Division III women's basketball with an overall record of 332-52 for a winning percentage of 86.5 percent in Broderick's tenure.
This season, the Captains return four starters from last season including three seniors in
Elizabeth Creed,
Caitlin Crump, and
Jessica Dornak. Creed led the team in minutes played with over 23 per game and Crump was one of the team's leading three-point shooters with 31 triples. Dornak started in the front court in 27 of 29 games played and led the team in field-goal percentage with a .536 mark.
The fourth returning starter is All-Region guard
Madison McKenzie, who led the team in scoring with 12.5 points per game and was a defensive star with 54 steals and 16 blocked shots. She earned C2C Defensive Player of the Year honors while averaging 22.4 minutes per game.
Despite the loss of All-Conference point guard
Hailey Kellogg and sharpshooter
McKenna Snively, the Captains return ten more letterwinners to the fold this season and each averaged at least 6.5 minutes per game. Sophomore
Sydney Worsham returns after a season-ending injury limited her rookie campaign to just 10 games after the freshman averaged 10.2 points per game. Senior
Mia Wilson had a breakout junior campaign with nearly nine points per game in under 18 minutes per game while CNU also welcomes back veterans
Sarah Pritz,
Atiana Williams,
Kendra Rigo, and
Noelle Cabiness. The sophomore class features
Denniyah Tanner,
Kaycee Doughty,
Sydney Richardson, and
Hazel Grepps and the second-year players earned valuable experience during an accomplished freshman season a year ago.
The Captains are poised to begin the 2026-27 season on Saturday, November 7 at the Susquehanna Tip-Off Tournament. CNU will face SUNY Cobleskill in the opener before taking on either the host River Hawks or St. John Fisher on day two of the season. The first home game of the year comes against Saint Vincent College on Wednesday, November 11 at 6:00 p.m.
The WBCA Division III Preseason Coaches Poll was led by defending champion Denison University with NYU and Bates rounding out the top three. Scranton and Wisconsin-Oshkosh are tied for fourth in the preseason poll. The regular season schedule features several marquee matchups including a neutral site bout against Denison in Puerto Rico on December 29. The Captains are also slated to take on No. 7 Johns Hopkins in January and could also potentially matchup with Bates in the Nelson & Janice Hinson Invitational on December 18-19.
2026-27 WBCA Division III Preseason Coaches Poll
| Rank |
School (Record) |
Points |
Last Season Final Rank |
First-Place Votes |
|
1
|
Denison (30-2)
|
240
|
1
|
9
|
|
2
|
NYU (29-1)
|
236
|
3
|
1
|
|
3
|
Bates (26-4)
|
192
|
6
|
0
|
|
4t
|
Scranton (32-1)
|
190
|
2
|
0
|
|
4t
|
UW-Oshkosh (28-4)
|
190
|
4
|
0
|
|
6
|
Smith (28-2)
|
186
|
10
|
0
|
|
7
|
Johns Hopkins (27-2)
|
184
|
7
|
0
|
|
8
|
Hope (26-4)
|
169
|
8
|
0
|
|
9
|
Bowdoin (25-3)
|
160
|
11
|
0
|
|
10
|
Washington-St. Louis (21-7)
|
149
|
14
|
0
|
|
11
|
Chicago (20-8)
|
144
|
9
|
0
|
|
12
|
Washington and Lee (31-1)
|
138
|
5
|
0
|
|
13
|
Christopher Newport (24-5)
|
125
|
16
|
0
|
|
14
|
Baldwin-Wallace (25-4)
|
118
|
15
|
0
|
|
15
|
John Carroll (26-5)
|
101
|
12
|
0
|
|
16
|
Concordia-Moorhead (26-5)
|
74
|
13
|
0
|
|
17
|
Ohio Wesleyan (21-6)
|
70
|
21
|
0
|
|
18
|
Hardin-Simmons (24-6)
|
59
|
24t
|
0
|
|
19
|
UW-La Crosse (21-10)
|
58
|
18
|
0
|
|
20
|
Illinois Wesleyan (23-6)
|
57
|
20
|
0
|
|
21
|
Ripon (26-3)
|
56
|
17
|
0
|
|
22
|
Southern Maine (27-3)
|
53
|
19
|
0
|
|
23
|
Trine (23-6)
|
50
|
24t
|
0
|
|
24
|
Carroll (WI) (23-6)
|
33
|
22
|
0
|
|
25
|
UW-Whitewater (20-9)
|
30
|
RV
|
0
|
