LILBURN, Ga. -- The Christopher Newport women's basketball team finished the 2025-26 campaign ranked No. 16 in the WBCA Coaches' Poll and No. 25 in the D3hoops.com national rankings. The Captains, who advanced to the NCAA Tournament Second Round, closed out the season with a 24-5 overall record an 82.8% winning percentage. 

Another banner season for head coach Bill Broderick and the Captains included a seventh consecutive Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Championship and a tenth straight 20-win campaign. 

The Captains saw the longest active streak of Top 25 appearances in the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll end during the regular season, but a dominant finish to the year resulted in the voters vaulting CNU back into the national rankings. CNU closes the year at No. 25 to extend a streak of ten straight years ranked in the final poll of the season. 

In the WBCA Poll, the Captains maintained a spot in the top-25 all season long and ranked as high as No. 7 in the coaches' poll. After the NCAA Tournament finished last weekend, the Captains closed the year ranked No. 16. 

This season, Christopher Newport advanced in the NCAA Tournament with a 74-62 win against Gettysburg College in the opening round and faced off against Washington and Lee University in the second round. The Captains gave the Generals all they could handle in the second round before falling on the road, 61-55, to conclude the season with a 24-5 overall record. Washington and Lee finished the year ranked No. 5 in both polls. 

Led by a pair of seniors, Hailey Kellogg and McKenna Snively, the Captains put together an historic run over the last four seasons. The duo recorded 108 wins over the last four years, ranking fourth in program history, with the third highest winning percentage. They helped lead Christopher Newport to a national runner-up finish as freshmen and reached the NCAA Tournament all four years of their career with four straight conference titles. 

Snively climbed the all-time charts in three-point shooting with 121 made three-pointers in her career. She ranks sixth all-time after knocking down 36 treys this season. Kellogg, in her first full year as the starting point guard, ranked 12th nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio with a 2.20 mark and finished with over 100 dimes in her senior season. 

Sophomore Madison McKenzie earned All-Region plaudits following her second year after leading the Captains on both ends of the floor. The second-year star was named the C2C Defensive Player of the Year and led Christopher Newport in scoring with 12.5 points per game on 41.4 percent shooting. She hauled in 94 rebounds, added 64 assists, and grabbed 54 steals during the year. 

As a team, the Captains continued its reputation as one of the top defensive teams in the country. CNU ranked eighth nationally in turnovers forced per game (26.5) and 10th in Division III steals per game (14.9). Christopher Newport added a standout offense in 2025-26 while ranking 16th nationally in scoring offense, pouring in 74.5 points per game. Of those points, the Captains led the nation in bench scoring with 36.7 points per game.