WAYNE, N.J. -- The nationally-ranked Christopher Newport volleyball team split a pair of matches on Friday in the first matches away from home in 2026. The No. 22 Captains (3-3) suffered a 3-1 setback to William Smith, receiving votes in the AVCA/Taraflex Top 25 poll, before picking up a win against the hosts from William Paterson University by the same final score.
Sophomore setter
Fielding Croft piled up 69 assists on Friday including a season-high 46 against the Herons of William Smith. Senior middle
Simara Alexander poured in a career-high-tying 15 kills in the loss, headlining a group of three Captains to reach double figures including a pair of new career-highs by
Alli Pratt (14) and
Jasmine Williams (12).
Williams carried over her impressive first outing into the win against William Paterson, leading all players with 12 kills to finish the day with 24. She added five blocks against the Pioneers and finished the match accounting for 14.5 total points.
Playing at 2:00 p.m. to open the tournament weekend, the Captains dropped the first match by a final score of 19-25, 25-22, 25-16, 25-23. CNU earned a first-set victory before William Smith rallied for a narrow win to improve to 3-1 on the season. The Captains fell to 2-3 with the loss.
CNU jumped out to an early lead, 13-5, in the first set behind a 7-0 run. In the early burst, Croft went back-to-back-to-back with three straight service aces to build the lead for CNU. The Herons trimmed the lead to three on two different occasions,but the Captains closed the first set with authority. Alexander drilled a cross-court winner to and Pratt's solo block created set point. Rookie
Sylvia Wargolet gave CNU the early lead with another ace to close out the 25-19 win.
In the second set, William Smith kept the Captains at bay for the majority of the set until CNU trailed by five, 16-11, and went on a 6-1 run to tie things up. After a Herons timeout, Croft looked to her senior, Alexander, on three straight possessions to give the Captains the lead, 19-18. It held only temporarily, though, as the William Smith squad answered back with a clinching run to even the match at one set apiece.
The Herons carried that momentum into the third set and pulled away for a 25-16 win, but the Captains rallied for another strong set in the fourth. Alexander and Prattbuilt a 4-1 lead with kills for three of the first four points. William Smith responded with an 11-5 run but again the Captains rallied to re-take the lead. Turning to the freshman this time, Croft kept finding
Jasmine Williams and the rookie buried three bullets to put the Captains ahead, 17-16.
Avery Hanly added a kill and an ace before the Herons adjusted for the match-clinching run. Arielle Newsome had the winning blow against the Captains to secure a win by the narrowest of margins, 25-23.
With little time to react to the setback, the Captains quickly evened their overall record to 3-3 with a 3-1 win of their own against William Paterson. The Captains finished out the win by a final score of 23-25, 25-20, 25-18, 25-17.
Following a similar script to the first match, the winning team dropped the first set before answering with three straight to clinch the victory. The hosts edged CNU, 25-23, in the first set, despite the Captains erasing a five-point deficit early. After trailing 7-2, the Captains won five rallies in a row and the two teams never separated by more than three points the rest of the set. It was the Pioneers that closed out set number one, but the momentum shifted in favor of CNU with the second-half run.
The visitors rolled to a 15-9 lead in the second set with Williams, Pratt, and Hanly joined by a pair of kills from
Phoebe Adams. The dominant start held up against a small rally by Paterson as Alexander and Hanly rejected an attack by the Pioneers for set point and Williams clinched the equalizer with a monster swing.
CNU pulled ahead, 2-1, with a dominant third set that saw the Captains open up the first double-digit lead of the day with a 22-12 advantage against the Pioneers. Alexander and
Emmy Carpenedo finished off the third set for a 25-18 win. The final set was back-and-forth through the first half, but the Captains used a dominant second half to clinch the set. Trailing 12-10, Christopher Newport won 15 of the final 20 points to secure the win.
Maddie Hanes and
Emmy Carpenedo were on the service line for the majority of the run including an 8-1 finish that saw Alexander, Williams, and Hanly close it out with three straight kills off assists by
Lauren Hobbs.
Christopher Newport will return to action on Saturday with a third and final match on the road trip set for 11:00 a.m. The Captains take on Centenary (N.J.) with live stats and video links available at CNUsports.com.
