NORTHBOROUGH, Mass. -- Riding a three-game winning streak, the Christopher Newport women's lacrosse team moved up one spot in the latest IWLCA National Coaches Poll as the Captains were slotted 21st in the latest rankings, which were released by the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association on Monday morning.

CNU has now been listed in the top-25 in six straight polls dating back to March 16. After entering the rankings slotted 25th in the country, the program climbed as high as 19th in the poll before spending the past three weeks ranked 22nd nationally.

At the top of the rankings, Middlebury remained No. 1 on the latest list, while Tufts, Wesleyan, Salisbury, and Amherst rounded out the top-five.

Christopher Newport will cap off the regular season with a top-25 test on Saturday when the Captains travel to No. 4 Salisbury for a Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference clash at Sea Gull Stadium. Previously, CNU has already squared off against five programs that are currently listed in the most recent rankings.

During a grueling regular season slate, Christopher Newport picked up wins over No. 8 York (Pa.) and No. 23 Haverford while dropping road bouts at No. 6 Washington and Lee, No. 9 Denison, and No. 17 Rowan. Putting that gauntlet into perspective, CNU has faced the nation's 10th-hardest schedule in terms of opponents' winning percentage. So far this season, the Captains' foes have won 66 percent of their games.

Despite the challenging schedule, Christopher Newport sits at 12-4 on the season, including 8-1 at home. Incredibly, the Captains have already won four more games than they captured all of last spring. The four-game improvement equals the 12th-best in the nation.

Meanwhile, on a statistical level, CNU is third nationally in free-position percentage (.623), 15th in clearing percentage (.871), 17th in scoring offense (15.63 goals-per-game), and 19th in takeaways-per-contest (13.56).

---ISH---