ITHACA, N.Y. – The Big Red got a giant Ivy League victory last weekend, and this Saturday the task should be even tougher as No. 10/6 Dartmouth comes to Ithaca for a 5 p.m. contest. The game will No. 16/17 Cornell's “Pink Game” this season, as T-shirts will be sold and donations will be made to raise money for breast cancer awareness.
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #10: No. 16/17 Cornell vs. No. 10/6 Dartmouth
GAME TIME: Saturday, April 7, 5 p.m.
GAME SITE: Schoellkopf Field (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Dartmouth leads 27-6
LAST MEETING: Dartmouth won 13-7 on April 9, 2011
2011-12 RECORDS: Cornell (7-2, 3-1 Ivy League); Dartmouth (7-1, 3-0 Ivy League)
LIVE STATS:
Cornell Athletics
LIVE VIDEO:
RedCast
ABOUT THE BIG RED
A thrilling overtime win at Princeton has propelled Cornell in the season's second half with a 7-2 record and a 3-1 mark in the Ivy League. Cornell has already scored more goals this year than in either of its last two seasons, and it is tied for eighth in the country with 14.78 goals per game and 15.00 draw controls per game. A senior-heavy team with 10 returning starters, Cornell has already surpassed its entire win total from the 2011 campaign.
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 DARTMOUTH
The Big Green, based in Hanover, N.H., is currently 7-1 on the year, 3-0 in the Ivy League and ranked No. 10 and No. 6 in the country's two national polls. Dartmouth enters the weekend on a two-game winning streak, and its only loss came on March 20 by a 20-4 at the hands of No. 5 Florida. The Green has the nation's 11th-best scoring defense, giving up just 8.75 goals per game. Sarah Plumb is the team's leading scorer with 21 goals and 10 assists for 31 points. Kirsten Goldberg is second in goals with 19. In goal, Kristen Giovanello leads the way with an 8.09 goals against average.
Amy Patton, a 1998 graduate of Maryland, is now in her 20th year coaching the Big Green.
THE SERIES WITH DARTMOUTH
Dartmouth holds an all-time 27-6 advantage against Cornell, controlling most of the teams' historical matchups that date back to 1980. The Big Red last defeated the Big Green in 2008, as Dartmouth has racked up four consecutive wins in the series. Last season, the Big Red fell by a 13-7 margin despite three goals from then-junior
Katie Kirk.
A WIN AGAINST DARTMOUTH WOULD…
…give Cornell its seventh win all-time against the Big Green…Bring Cornell to 4-1 in Ivy League play for the first time since 2006…improve the team's home record to 3-1…be the team's second consecutive win over a ranked opponent and third this season…be Cornell's first victory against the Big Green in its last five tries.
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.
NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Senior attack
Jessi Steinberg was been named the WomensLax.com Player of the Week on Monday. 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.
SCORCHING SCORING PACE
The Big Red had already eclipsed its goal totals from the last two seasons. Averaging nearly 15 goals per game this year, the Big Red is on pace to score 222 goals by the end of the regular season. That mark would surpass the team record for goals in a season – 210, set in 2000 – by 12 goals.
QUICK ON THE DRAW
Senior midfielders and co-captains
Shannon McHugh and
Katie Kirk are slowly moving up the Big Red's all-time draw control list. Kirk slid into eighth in team history with her 85th draw control of her career. She is two away from seventh place and five shy of sixth. McHugh, meanwhile, is now in 10th place all-time and would move up to ninth with six more draw controls.
TOUGH STRETCH
The Big Red is in the middle of the toughest portion of its schedule, playing five consecutive games against ranked opposition. No. 8 Penn, No. 16 Princeton, No. 6/10 Dartmouth, No. 13/11 Loyola and No. 2/3 Syracuse are all playing Cornell in a four-week span. Cornell is 1-1 so far, dropping a one-goal game to Penn but then beating Princeton by one goal in overtime.
FAST STARTS
The Big Red has been making a habit of beginning games with early leads. In five of the team's nine contests this season, Cornell has taken at least a three-goal lead before the other team has been able to score. Cornell has held leads of 6-0, 5-1, 4-0 (twice) and 3-0 (twice) this year and has held on to win five of those six games. Only Notre Dame was able to take a multi-goal lead on the Big Red before it managed a goal.
SCORING STREAKS
Through eight games this season, three Cornell players have scored a point in every game.
Jessi Steinberg and
Caroline Salisbury have each tallied at least one point in nine contests.
Shannon McHugh, who missed the Columbia game on March 10, has scored in all eight games she has played.
FREE POSITION SUCCESS
The Big Red has taken 44 free position shots this season and converted on 23 of them, giving the team a 52 percent success rate. Cornell is on pace to finish the season with over 50 percent conversion on free position shots for the first time since 2007.
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.
OFFENSIVE DEFENSEMAN
Besides all the usual suspects getting in on the scoring against Jacksonville on March 20, Cornell senior defenseman
Cacki Helmer also scored. The goal, just the second of her four-year career, came on her first shot of the season. With time winding down in the first half, Helmer sprinted across the restraining line, headed right for the net, and fired past the Dolphins keeper to give Cornell a 12-7 lead at halftime.
CENTURY MARK
Senior attack
Jessi Steinberg scored four goals against Columbia on March 10, going over the 100-goal mark for her career with her second score of the contest. If she keeps up her current pace of 3.44 goals per game, she would finish the regular season with 144 goals, tied with Jaimee Reynolds for first all-time in team history.
NATIONALLY RANKED
The Big Red moved up two spots in this week's IWLCA Coaches' Poll, coming in at No. 16 and flipping places with now-No. 18 Princeton. In the deBeer Media Poll, Cornell stayed put at No. 17 but knocked Princeton out of the rankings.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Senior captain
Jessi Steinberg earned Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week on March 19 for a 12-point week featuring nine goals and three assists. The award was the second of her career and the team's second weekly award of the season.
Senior captain
Cacki Helmer earned Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week on March 12 for a terrific week where she had four caused turnovers and eight ground balls to go along with two Big Red victories. Heading into last week, Helmer led the nation in ground balls and caused turnovers per game.
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. Already this season, Steinberg is at 31 goals but
Olivia Knotts is one shy of Kirk's second-best 22 from last year. So far this year, nine different players have contributed at least six goals: Steinberg (31),
Olivia Knotts (21),
Caroline Salisbury (19),
Shannon McHugh (12),
Katie Kirk (10),
Amanda D'Amico (nine),
Lindsay Toppe (seven),
Lauren Halpern (six) and
Chelsea Rowe (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 nine 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.
CLEARLY PERFECT
The Big Red went a flawless 19 of 19 on clear attempts against Colgate on March 7, marking the first time the team did not have a failed clear since April 23, 2011 against Yale. Cornell has a .889 clear percentage so far this season and had two perfect clear games (at Yale, vs. Princeton) last season.
FIRST TIME'S THE CHARM
Goalkeeper
Courtney Gallagher had played in seven games for Cornell over the course of her career, but she had never started until March 7 at Colgate. The junior from Yardley, Pa., made seven saves in her first ever complete game and earned her first career victory. It took her just four more days to earn her second career victory when she started against Columbia on March 10.
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 14.78 goals per game puts it tied for eighth in the country. Cornell's 15.00 draw controls also has it tied for eighth nationally. Cornell is also tied for 11th with a .778 win percentage.
Individually,
Jessi Steinberg has moved up to seventh in the country with her 4.89 points per game and sits alone at 10th in the nation with 3.44 goals per game.
Cacki Helmer's 1.78 caused turnovers per outing has her in 19th place in the country and her 3.11 ground balls per game keeps her tied for ninth nationally.
IVY STATISTICS
The Big Red continues to lead the Ivy League in goals per game with 14.78 and is second in assists per game with 6.11. The team scores more points per game (20.89), wins more draws (15.00) and takes more shots (31.22) per game than any team among the Ancient Eight.
As an individual,
Jessi Steinberg leads the league in goals per game (3.44) while
Olivia Knotts' 2.33 goals per game ties her for seventh.
Caroline Salisbury is fifth in the Ivy League with 1.44 assists per contest, tied with Steinberg and just ahead of Knotts.
Cacki Helmer is league's best player with 3.11 ground balls per game, and
Shannon McHugh's 3.75 draw controls per game has her tied for third.
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 Princeton:
Approaching career numbers:
UP NEXT
The schedule stays tough for the Big Red as Loyola-Maryland visits Ithaca for a 1 p.m. game on April 14.
