ITHACA, N.Y. – After a huge Ivy League win against Yale over the weekend, the Big Red women's lacrosse team will take a non-conference visit to nearby Vestal for a 4 p.m. matchup against Binghamton. The teams have never met, and Cornell will look to take the first ever contest between the sides.

GAME INFORMATION
GAME #14: No. 13/13 Cornell at Binghamton
GAME TIME: Tuesday, April 24, 4 p.m.
GAME SITE: Bearcats Sports Complex (Vestal, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Teams have never met.
LAST MEETING: No previous meeting.
2011-12 RECORDS: Cornell (9-4, 4-2 Ivy League); Binghamton (3-11, 0-5 America East)
LIVE STATS: Binghamton Live Stats
LIVE VIDEO:  Bearcats TV

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell had a great weekend victory against Yale, downing the visiting Bulldogs by a 17-9 margin. Caroline Salisbury scored five goals in the contest and had an assist, and Jessi Steinberg equaled her teammate with identical numbers. That victory sets up an interesting final week of Ivy League action with nothing clinched yet for the conference tournament. Cornell has eclipsed its win totals from each of the last two years and its goal totals from each of the last five years, and the team is one win away from surpassing its 2009 total of nine and equaling its 2008 total of 10. A senior-heavy team with 10 returning starters from 2011, Cornell is inches away from making the Ivy League Tournament for the first time since 2010.

HEAD COACH JENNY GRAAP
Jenny Graap returned to her alma mater in 1997 with one goal in mind: to build the Cornell women's lacrosse team into a championship contender. Now entering her 15th year at the helm, the 2002 Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association Coach of the Year and 2006 Inside Lacrosse Magazine and IWLCA Northeast Coach of the Year has developed the Big Red women's lacrosse program into one of the most successful in the nation. She has posted a 129-88 record at Cornell and earned her 150th career win against Florida to close the 2011 campaign.

ABOUT BINGHAMTON
The Bearcats, based in Vestal, are now in their 11th season of women's lacrosse. This year, Binghamton holds a 3-11 record and is winless at 0-5 in America East. The Bearcats are on a seven-game losing streak, having dropped contests most recently to Vermont on Saturday and Siena on Tuesday. Lis Zuern is the team's leading scorer with 31 goals and 13 assists for 44 points. Katherine Hunsberger is next in line with 26 goals and four assists. Goalkeeper Kara Pafumi has played every minute for the Bearcats this year and has a goals against average of 13.26.
Binghamton is led by Tony Zostant, who is in his fourth year as head coach.

THE SERIES WITH BINGHAMTON
Cornell and Binghamton have never met. Tuesday's contest will be the first between the teams.

A WIN AGAINST BINGHAMTON WOULD…
…make Cornell 1-0 lifetime against the Bearcats...give the Big Red 10 wins for the first time since 2008…improve the Big Red's out-of-conference record to 6-2…keep Cornell perfect in true road games (6-0).

IVY LEAGUE TOURNAMENT SCENARIOS
With an incredibly muddled conference standings, there is still a chance for Cornell to finish as high as first in the regular season and as low as fifth. If Cornell, Princeton and Harvard all win Ivy League games this week and Princeton and Harvard's victories are by few enough goals, five teams would finish with a 5-2 record and the Big Red would host the Ivy League Tournament. A win against Brown on Saturday guarantees Cornell at least the third spot in the tournament, but a loss coupled with wins by Princeton and Harvard would eliminate the Big Red from postseason play.

IVY LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
For a 10-point week where she recorded two hat tricks and controlled 10 draws, Cornell junior attackman Caroline Salisbury was named the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week on Monday. She is second on the team with 35 goals and 51 points.

SCORCHING SCORING PACE
The Big Red has already eclipsed its goal totals from the last five seasons. Averaging over 14 goals per game this year, the Big Red is on pace to score 215 goals by the end of the regular season. If the team plays at least one game in the Ivy League tournament and continues that pace, this year's squad would surpass the 2002  team's record of 228 goals by one.

SENIOR DAY
Last Saturday was the final regular-season home game for a group of nine women's lacrosse seniors. Kyla Dambach, Beth Halayko, Cacki Helmer, Katie Kirk, Olivia Knotts, Shannon McHugh, Ali O'Neil, Jessi Steinberg and Shannon Tierney went out on top at Schoellkopf with an eight-goal win over the Bulldogs.

TEN-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
At halftime of Saturday's game, the Big Red will honored the contributions of its 2002 team. Posting a 16-2 record and advancing to the national semifinals for the first time in team history, the 2002 Cornell women's lacrosse team was also the first Cornell women's team in any sport to make it to the NCAA Final Four. Eight players, including all-time leading scorer Jaimee Reynolds, were in attendance.

TOUGH STRETCH COMPLETE
The Big Red finished its toughest stretch of the year, playing five consecutive games against ranked opposition. No. 8 Penn, No. 16 Princeton, No. 6/10 Dartmouth, No. 11/12 Loyola and No. 2 Syracuse all faced Cornell in a four-week span, and the Big Red emerged with a 2-3 record in those games. The team dropped a one-goal game to Penn, beat Princeton by one goal in overtime, lost by two to Dartmouth, upended Loyola by seven before losing to Syracuse by the same amount.

NATIONAL PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
For her career-high, five-goal effort against then-No. 11 Loyola on April 14, Cornell junior attacker Caroline Salisbury was named the WomensLax.com Player of the Week on Monday.
Three weeks earlier, senior attack Jessi Steinberg was named the WomensLax.com Player of the Week on April 2. Steinberg earned the award thanks to a four-goal, one-assist effort against Princeton. Her fourth goal of the game proved to be the overtime game-winner.

RANK AND FILE
Cornell's victory over Loyola was its third win against a ranked opponent this year. The Big Red started its Ivy League slate with a win over then-ranked Harvard, defeated Princeton on the road in overtime, and then conquered Loyola on Saturday. Cornell's four losses this season have also all come against ranked teams.

OFFENSIVE DEFENSEMAN
Defenseman and captain Cacki Helmer has scored two goals this season, tripling her career total entering the season. She scored in the game against Jacksonville where it seemed like every Big Red player was getting in on the action, but she also managed to get a goal against No. 2 Syracuse last Tuesday night, something only five other layers on the team can say. She now has three goals in her career.

CHARITABLE DONATION
The Big Red announced that it had raised more than $2,200 toward breast cancer research thanks to the efforts of its “Pink” game on Saturday against Dartmouth. Cornell's funds will all be donated to the Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes.

TIGERS BEAT
Cornell's 13-12 overtime victory at Princeton on Saturday was just the team's fourth victory ever against the Tigers. Cornell, though, has now beaten Princeton in its last two trips to New Jersey.

OVERTIME SUCCESS
The Princeton win was Cornell's first overtime game of the year and was its first road overtime win since April 10, 1993 at Yale. Cornell last played in overtime on March 20, 2011 against No. 6 Notre Dame. In that game Cornell also emerged victorious by a 6-5 margin. The team – which has won its last three overtime games – last lost in an extra period on Feb. 24, 2007 against Rutgers.

QUICK ON THE DRAW
Senior midfielders and co-captains Shannon McHugh and Katie Kirk are quickly moving up the Big Red's all-time draw control list. Kirk is now all alone in sixth at 95 draw controls and is just two out of fifth place. McHugh, meanwhile, is now in sole possession of eighth place all-time and would move up to seven with two more draw controls.

SCORING STREAKS
Through 12 games this season, two Cornell players have scored a point in every contest. Caroline Salisbury has each tallied at least one point in 13 contests and most recently scored three goals against Syracuse. Shannon McHugh, who missed the Columbia game on March 10, has scored in all 12 games she has played and extended her streak with a goal against Yale.

GOALS, GOALS, GOALS
The Big Red's 22-goal outburst at Jacksonville on March 20 tied the team's all-time record, set on May 1, 1994 against Rutgers. Cornell had scored 20 goals in a game just twice in its history before this season, but after the Jacksonville contest the Big Red had scored 20 goals twice in eight days. Cornell also recorded a 21-goal effort against Canisius on March 13.

NATIONALLY RANKED
In the deBeer Media Poll, Cornell remained where it was last week at No. 13.

BALANCED SCORING
Last season, Jessi Steinberg led the team with 38 goals, nearly doubling Katie Kirk's second-best mark on the team of 22. Steinberg is at 42 goals already this season, but Caroline Salisbury and Olivia Knotts have already surpassed Kirk's second-best 22 from last year. This year, 10 different players have contributed at least six goals: Steinberg (42), Salisbury (35), Knotts (28), Shannon McHugh (16), Katie Kirk (15), Amanda D'Amico (12), Lindsay Toppe (seven), Chelsea Rowe (seven), Lauren Halpern (seven) and Sarah Hefner (six) are making sure the Big Red attack is dangerous all over. Last season, only six players all year reached the five-goal mark.

HATS OFF
Cornell has had a player record a hat trick in all of its games this year. In the season opener at Rutgers, Olivia Knotts scored the game-winning goal with 52 seconds left to complete her hat trick. Amanda D'Amico got her third goal late against Harvard. Against Colgate on March 7, Caroline Salisbury and Sarah Hefner each earned a hat trick, and Salisbury had four goals to her name.

In the home opener against Columbia, Jessi Steinberg scored four times, Katie Kirk has three goals and Knotts had her second hat trick of the season. Against Canisius, Steinberg scored five goals while Salisbury had three. In the Notre Dame contest, both Knotts (five) and Steinberg (four) eclipsed the three-goal mark.

At Jacksonville, Steinberg (three), Knotts (four) and D'Amico (three) continued the impressive streak that has now lasted more than half of the 15-game season. Steinberg also kept the streak alive against Penn when she scored five goals for the second time this year. Against Princeton, four players recorded a hat trick: Steinberg (four goals), McHugh, Salisbury and Kirk.

In the Dartmouth contest, Knotts and Salisbury kept the streak alive by each scoring three times. Knotts (three), Steinberg (four) and Salisbury (five) all reached the three-goal plateau on Saturday against Loyola. Salisbury continued her hat trick streak with three goals against Syracuse and five against Yale and has now scored a hat trick in five straight games. Steinberg also had a hat trick against Yale (five goals).

NATIONAL NUMBERS
Through last weekend's games, Cornell ranks near the top of the country in multiple statistical categories. The Big Red's scoring offense of 14.31 goals per game puts it at 10th in the country. Cornell's 14.15 draw controls per game also has the team 14th nationally.
Individually, Jessi Steinberg sits in 12th in the nation with her 4.62 points per game and is also in 16th with 3.23 goals per game. Cacki Helmer's 3.08 ground balls per game keeps her in seventh nationally.

IVY STATISTICS
The Big Red continues to lead the Ivy League in goals per game with 14.31 and is second in assists per game with 5.31. The team scores more points per game (19.62), wins more draws (14.15) and takes more shots (31.54) per game than any team among the Ancient Eight.
As an individual, Jessi Steinberg leads the league in goals per game (3.23) while Caroline Salisbury is in fourth in that category (2.69). Salisbury is sixth in the Ivy League with 1.25 assists per contest, just behind Steinberg's 1.38 and ahead of Knotts' 1.08. Cacki Helmer is league's best player with 3.08 ground balls per game, and Shannon McHugh's 3.25 draw controls per game has her in fourth.

TEWAARATON WATCH LIST
Jessi Steinberg has been named to the 2012 Tewaaraton Award Watch list, InsideLacrosse.com announced before the season. Steinberg, who led the team in scoring last season with 42 points, is now in the early pool of players who will be considered for the Tewaaraton, college lacrosse's highest individual honor. Steinberg was one of 53 players named to the list across all three divisions of women's lacrosse.

CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
Against Yale:
• Katie Kirk caused her 40th turnover.
• Cacki Helmer picked up her 100th ground ball.
• Caroline Salisbury scored her 50th career goal and 70th point.
• Jessi Steinberg moved to third all-time in team history with her 132nd goal.

Approaching career numbers:
• Courtney Gallagher's next save will be her 40th.
• Shannon Tierney's next goal will be her 10th.
• Cacki Helmer is two caused turnovers shy of 60.
• Jessi Steinberg is five goals away from sole possession of second place in team history.
• Katie Kirk's next ground ball will be her 90th and her next point will be her 80th.

UP NEXT
The Big Red will close out its regular season with an all-important Ivy League contest at Brown on Saturday at noon. With a win, Cornell will earn a spot in the Ivy League Tournament.