CNU Soccer–USA South Champions
By Darryl Fetz and Pierce Yarberry
Women’s Soccer
Photo courtesy of USA South Athletic Conference
On a brisk Tuesday in November the Christopher Newport University Captains were locked in a scoreless game against the N.C. Wesleyan Battling Bishops. The Captains kept knocking on the door of Tiina Rastiola, the Bishops sophomore goalkeeper, requiring her to come up with save after save to keep them in the game. That all changed when senior midfielder Sam Ciaravino headed the ball past her defender and freshman forward Emma O’Rielly placed the goal in the bottom right corner of the net, just under the diving Rastiola. O’Rielly’s goal would be the game winner in the USA South Quarterfinal and propelled the Captains to Martinsville, where the rest of the tournament took place.
The goal came in a game where the Captains fired 36 shots on the goal, the most in any game this season. The Captains’ offense and defense worked together to keep the ball on the Bishops side for the majority of the game. N.C. Wesleyan only forced CNU sophomore goalkeeper Meghan Gumbs to make one save the entire game. “We have a nice system going, we believe in it, and we have lots of confidence,” said Head Coach Ruth Keegan on her team’s chemistry.
The Captains had chance after chance to take the lead, with Ciaravino and sophomore midfielder Dani Gunderson both getting three shots on goal. The best chance to score in the first half came from senior forward Lauren Fleming when she unleashed a scorcher from outside the box that smacked off the crossbar. With just seconds remaining in the first half, Gunderson had the ball near the right post, and a battle ensued, with Rastiola finally knocking it out of bounds to end the half.
During the second half, Fleming hit the post once again and Ciaravino missed just to the right of the frame to keep the score tied at zero. Just moments later, at the 83rd minute, Ciaravino and O’Reilly put the Captains ahead. They would stay there for the remainder of the game as the defense held the Bishops to only two shots. “For how hard it was to score, for us to keep banging on the door, it feels amazing,” commented O’Reilly on her game-winning goal.
The Captains have to work on putting the ball in the back of the net, but a win is a win and as Ciaravino stated, “Now we’re off to Martinsville and that’s all that matters.”
Once in Martinsville, the Captains played another close game against the Greensboro College Pride. Unlike the Bishops, the Pride threatened to score as junior midfielder Beth Ward bounced a shot off the post.
After a first half that lacked any scoring, Ciaravino put the Captains on the board with a goal off a pass from senior midfielder Chelsea Brown. The goal tied Ciaravino with former player Emily Renkin for the most goals in Captains history.
O’Reilly continued her success in the tournament by scoring another goal, to put the Captains up 2-0, where they would stay for the remainder of the game and advance to the USA South Tournament Championship to play Averett University.
The Championship game turned out to be their easiest defeat, as they coasted to a 4-0 victory to win the USA South Tournament for the second year in a row. Ciaravino and O’Reilly recorded two goals each and were both named to the All-Tournament Team. “It feels great to win, after all the work we put in as a team,” commented tournament MVP O’Reilly.
Gumbs recorded her 11th shutout of the season, having earned three of them in the tournament. The defense played hard throughout the tournament and were energetic and pumped up the whole time. “We yell three and five to each other at the start of the game to get ready. Three represents the number of passes they can get in a row. We need to limit the other team’s touches to no more than three in a row. Five means to play hard the first five minutes after a goal or before and after a half. We need to keep our concentration and play tough in the first five minutes after big plays,” said Gumbs on the defensive strategies.
Ciaravino finished a remarkable year as the all-time leading goal scorer for CNU, and racked up the highest point total in one year, finishing with 43 points.
On her second goal in the game, Gunderson struck a corner that flew into the box, and sophomore midfielder Annemarie Weaver headed it towards the goal. The Averett defense sent the ball bouncing towards the top of the box. Ciaravino struck the ball and sent a strike at the left hand corner of the goal. As the ball struck the back of the goal, the Captains knew they had just wrapped up the tournament and Ciaravino had just concluded a phenomenal season in USA South play.
The Captains now await their fate in the NCAA tournament, and hope the strong play that helped them become the USA South Champions will carry them far into the tournament.
Men’s Soccer
Photo courtesy of USA South Athletic Conference
The Christopher Newport University Men’s Soccer team defeated N.C. Wesleyan 3-1 to claim its second straight USA South Conference title.
The Captains began the tournament with a first round bye, having secured the number two seed because of their 17-1-1 record in the regular season. Their first game was against Averett University in the Semifinals, with the Captains edging the Cougars 1-0. Senior midfielder Clif Kipper scored in the 71st minute, after a pass from junior forward Winston Mattheisen. With the win, CNU was pitted against top seed N.C. Wesleyan, who previously defeated Methodist 3-0 to advance to the final.
The Battling Bishops took an early lead when junior goalkeeper Justin Wolfe deflected a header that was delivered by N.C. Wesleyan’s Mark Wielitzka. N.C. Wesleyan’s Owen White followed up the shot easing it past Wolfe for the goal in the 4th minute of play.
But, the lead was short-lived. The Captains bounced back minutes later when Mattheisen, who was named the tournament MVP, connected off of a cross from sophomore midfielder Sean Moriarty. Mattheisen headed in the ball past N.C. Wesleyan goalkeeper Ville Ture for the equalizer.
The score remained deadlocked until late in the game. Mattheisen would again score off of a header in the 70th minute, for what would be the game-winner.
“The goals I scored in the final meant a lot to me and the team,” said Mattheisen. “They had scored in the first five minutes and then I got one right after it, and then the second goal game in the second half and that put us ahead for the rest of the game. Our team definitely knew we had to come out and play great soccer to win the tournament and we did, and I just hope we can keep this playing style going into the [NCAA] tournament and win it all.”
Sophomore forward Andrew Bonorden would score another goal for the Captains in the 86th minute, effectively sealing the win for CNU.
Wolfe picked up seven saves in the win against the Bishops, as well as a shutout against Averett.
“The shutout against Averett was huge. We had already beaten them once this season, so there was no doubt in our minds that we could do it again. We just knew we had to go out there and play our game.”
With the win, the Captains receive an automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Tournament.
“It means a lot to win the conference back-to-back, considering that we had never won the tournament until last year,” said Mattheisen. “We just need to practice hard this week and stay healthy and we will be fine for the tournament. We are all excited because we know if we play well we can do something special this year.”
“There’s definitely a lot more pressure now heading into the tournament,” added Wolfe. “But again, all we have to do is play the best we can and there’s no doubt in my mind that we can beat every team that we play. The automatic bid helps a lot. Coming into the conference tournament we knew if we didn’t win it, we were putting our fate into the hands of the voters. There was always a chance that if we didn’t win, we wouldn’t get a bid into the tournament. I think that is what helped us to play so hard. Now we can relax a little bit more and just wait to see who we play in the first round.”
Six Captains made the All-Tournament team, as Mattheisen and Wolfe were joined by teammates David Haas, Moriarty, Denny Arinello, and Kipper.
The NCAA Tournament will be hosted by Trinity University and San Antonio Sports and will be played at the Blossom Soccer Complex.
Posted by The Captain's Log
on Nov 10 2010. Filed under Soccer, Sports.
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