ITHACA, N.Y. - The 2012-13 Big Red women's basketball season was full of steady improvement that the 2013-14 squad's five seniors will look to build on during their final campaign on East Hill. The group consists of three returning starters and a pair of role players intent on working their way into the regular rotation as Cornell seeks its first winning season since 2007-08.

"I've been very pleased so far with the progress we've been making on a daily basis," said Dayna Smith, The Rebecca Quinn Morgan '60 Head Coach Of Women's Basketball. "The upperclassmen are being great leaders and the underclassmen are learning quickly and bringing a great energy to practice each day. Because the newcomers have picked things up so quickly, we've been able to go live at practice a lot quicker than we have in the past, and the practices have been extremely competitive."

"On top of that, everyone is healthy," continued Smith. "All of the newcomers are extremely coachable and all of the upperclassmen are playing the very best basketball that they have ever played. So it's been a really great preseason so far." 

GUARDS
While the team returns All-Ivy selection Allyson DiMagno to the forward position, the Big Red's strength lies with its deep and versatile guard corps. Coach Smith will need to fill the void left by graduated seniors Spencer Lane and Taylor Flynn, at point guard and shooting guard, respectively, but has any number of capable players that can step up and get the job done.

Cornell will rely on returning starters Shelby Lyman and Stephanie Long to pose an outside shooting presence, as the duo has combined for 180 career 3-pointers. Both are equally capable of running the offense if necessary, both having played point guard for the Big Red at some point during their career. Long enters the season with 181 career assists to her credit, while Lyman has 162 helpers, both marks ranking among the top 20 in Cornell history.

Coming off the bench to help spell Lyman and Long will be classmate Aspen Chandler, and sophomores Allison Bockrath and Molly Meriggioli.

Chandler has seen consistent time off the bench over the past three seasons. Last year, she saw action in 20 games, averaging 6.8 minutes per contest and finished the season with 10 points and nine rebounds in 136 total minutes.

Bockrath registered the most playing time of any freshman during the 2012-13 season, seeing action in 15 games and averaging 8.6 minutes per outing.  She finished the year with 24 points and 16 rebounds to go along with five assists, four steals and one blocked shot.

Meriggioli will look to build on a rookie season in which she saw action in seven games, averaging 2.1 minutes per contest.

To fill the starting point guard role, Coach Smith is looking to a pair of freshmen in Kerri Moran and Megan LeDuc. Moran set the Oak Knoll school record with 1,453 career points and was an ESPN Hoop Gurlz 3-star prospect. She was named the Union County Player of the Year and was selected to the N.J. North/South All-Star team as a senior. LeDuc earned All-Met honorable mention and was a first-team All-Northern Region and a first-team All-Liberty District selection in her junior and senior seasons.

Also fighting to see time at the point guard position is junior Christine Kline and freshman Taylor DePalma. Last season, Kline saw action in 13 games, averaging 3.4 minutes per outing and finishing the season with eight points, five rebounds, five steals and two assists. DePalma, a local produce that graduated from Ithaca high school, earned five varsity letters after making the varsity team as an eighth grader. As a senior captain, she was named to the All-New York State Section IV team and picked up first-team all-conference accolades.

FORWARDS
The Big Red returns arguably the best small forward in the Ivy League in DiMagno, who earned second-team All-Ivy accolades following a junior season in which she averaged a double-double (14.7 points, 11.5 rebounds) to lead the Big Red. She set the school record with 321 rebounds on the year and led the Ivy League and ranked 12th in the nation in rebounds per game. An all-around solid player, DiMagno also had the second best field goal percentage in the conference (.471), while ranking second overall in free throw percentage (.854), second in minutes played (36.0) and fifth in steals per game (1.8).  

DiMagno will enter her senior campaign ranked fourth overall in Big Red history with 695 career rebounds, needing just 236 more to become the school's all-time leader. She also needs just 60 more points to become the 13th player in Cornell history to reach the 1,000-point plateau.

Despite the return of DiMagno, Coach Smith will need to replace centers Clare Fitzpatrick and Kristina Danielak. A three-time All-Ivy selection, Fitzpatrick was one of the Big Red's leading scorers and rebounders in each of her four seasons and became just the second player in Cornell history, and first-ever under Coach Dayna Smith, to reach 1,200 career points and 600 career rebounds.Danielak was a solid role player for the Big Red, playing in 106 games during her career and averaging 14.1 minutes per contest. 

Looking to fill Fitzpatrick and Danielak's shoes will be junior Sarah Poland. Standing at 6-3, Poland is the tallest member of the Big Red and has spent the past two seasons developing on the court and in the weight room and she looks to break into the starting line-up in 2012-13. For her career, Poland has seen action in 35 games for an average of 5.8 minutes per contest.

Rookies Nia Marshall and Nicholle Aston will provide outstanding depth and push DiMagno and Poland, respectively, for playing time, while senior Joelle Davidson will look to earn playing time after making the transition to the small forward position last season. 

Marshall, a former high school teammate of Poland, helped Hathaway Brown School to three consecutive Division II state championships and was earned both all-district and All-Ohio honors as a senior.

Davidson made the move to the forward position during her junior season and saw action in seven games, averaging 4.0 minutes per contests.

Aston finished her high school career with more than 1,500 points and 1,000 rebounds. She was named the Mission League MVP and Los Angeles Daily News Player of the Year following a senior season in which she averaged 22.8 points, 12.8 rebounds, 2.9 blocks and 2.1 steals per game. 

THE SCHEDULE
The 2013-14 campaign opens on Nov. 8 when regional rival Colgate comes to Newman Arena. A week later, the Big Red travels to in-state rivals Buffalo on Nov. 16 and Syracuse on Nov. 18.

Back-to-back home games against Bucknell (Nov. 23) and Loyola (Nov. 26) are next on tap, before heading to Lyman's home state to participate in the Seattle Tournament from Nov. 29-30. Cornell will face Drake to open the tournament, before taking on either Coastal Carolina or Seattle the following day.

The Big Red will play host to Binghamton on Dec. 4 and St. Francis (N.Y.) on Dec. 7, before enjoying its annual hiatus for the school's study break. Cornell returns to action on Dec. 21 when it travels to Robert Morris to take on the Colonials for the first time since 1999.

The team closes 2013 and opens 2014 with a pair of home games, taking on Drexel on Dec. 30 and Vermont on Jan. 2. The Big Red will then head south to take on Morgan State on Jan. 6 and Howard University on Jan. 8.

Ivy League play begins on Jan. 18 with a trip to Columbia, before the Lions make the return trip to Newman Arena the following weekend.

A five-game Ivy League home stand continues when Brown (Jan. 31), Yale (Feb. 1), Penn (Feb. 7) and Princeton (Feb. 8) travel to Ithaca.

Cornell's first full Ivy League road weekend will also wrap up the first half of conference play, as the Big Red heads to Dartmouth (Feb. 14) and Harvard (Feb. 15).

The Big Red remains on the road with a trip to Yale (Feb. 21) and Brown (Feb. 22), before returning home to take on Harvard (Feb. 28) and Dartmouth (March 1).

The regular season will conclude with a road trip to Princeton (March 7) and Penn (March 8).