NEWPORT NEWS, VA – In a game worthy of a bigger stage, second-ranked Christopher Newport used a late goal to build a 3-1 lead against 18^th-ranked Johns Hopkins and held off a late Blue Jay push for a 3-2 win in the 2024 NCAA Division III Women's Soccer Quarterfinals Sunday afternoon.
 
The loss ends the Blue Jays' season at 18-3-3, while the Captains move into the NCAA Semifinals and improve to 19-1-2.
 
The Captains needed less than three minutes to open the scoring as they turned the first corner kick of the game into the opening strike.  Reanna Slater lifted her corner offering to the back post, where it bounced and found the foot of Kyleigh Gough in traffic and she roofed one from in tight to give CNU the early one-goal lead.
 
After conceding the first goal under heavy CNU pressure in the first several minutes, the Blue Jays tilted the field and generated several good chances with an Olivia Piraino offering being saved by Amy Sidaway and a Katie Sullivan left-footer drifting wide.
 
Still, the Blue Jays pulled even in the 13^th minute when Piraino split a pair of defenders on the wing and sent a rocket over Sidaway's head off the far post and in to pull the Jays even.

The Blue Jays continued to pressure, but it was the Captains striking in transition in the 23^rd minute to grab a 2-1 lead.  Working the middle of the field and closely guarded, Hannah Heaton got to the top of the box on the move and rifled one inside the post past a diving Allyson Shick.
 
While the half would end with the 2-1 Captain lead, Johns Hopkins had several golden chances to pull even as they finished with 12 of the 17 first-half shots.  Sidaway was forced to punch away a tough-angle shot from Megha Salvi  in the 27^th minute,, was equal to Sullivan in the 32^nd minute and punched Olivia Redden's header over the bar in the 41^st minute to maintain the Captains' one-goal lead.
 
The abundant chances of the first half slowed considerably in the second half as both defenses clamped down.  Sidaway handled a Sullivan free kick from 20 yards out early in the half and the Blue Jays bookended corners around a Gough header that went over the bar midway through the half.
 
The Captains maintained the one-goal lead into the 80^th minute, when they capitalized on pressure in transition to push the lead to two.  After the Blue Jays played the ball back towards edge of their own box, Shick came out and tried to clear, but Corinne Kulik was able to deflect and control her clearing attempt and fired a shot from outside the box to give CNU what appeared was a comfortable 3-1 lead as the clock dripped under the 10-minute mark.
 
Comfortable became uncomfortable for the Captains late as the Blue Jays pushed forward and trimmed the deficit in half in the 88^th minute when junior Megha Salvi headed home a Lily Gaston floater into the box.
 
Still pushing, the Blue Jays created one last chance with 40 seconds remaining as they drew a corner.  With all 10 players up, Juliana Taxter sent the corner into the box, where it was pushed out to the top of the box by the Captains.  There, it found the foot of Shick, whose one-timer bounced towards the far post, but Sidaway went down to smother it and seal CNU's trip to the NCAA Semifinals.