GAME INFORMATION
GAME #13: Cornell at Harvard
GAMETIME: Saturday, Oct. 18, at Noon
GAME SITE: Jordan Field (Cambridge, Mass.)
SERIES RECORD: Harvard leads, 22-8-4
LAST MEETING: Harvard won, 3-2 (OT), on Oct. 7 in Ithaca, N.Y.
2008 RECORDS: Cornell (8-4, 3-0); Harvard (6-5, 2-1)
THE MATCHUP WITH HARVARD: The Big Red is carrying a four-game winning streak into this weekend's contest as it tries to remain undefeated in the Ivy League against Harvard on Saturday, Oct. 18, at Jordan Field at noon. The Crimson is currently riding a four-game winning streak of its own, coming off a 6-0 victory over St. Louis on Monday to improve to 6-5 overall. Harvard holds the all-time series advantage, 22-8-4, and has defeated Cornell in the last two meetings.
THE HEAD COACH: Cornell head coach Donna Hornibrook is in her fifth season at Cornell (38-40, .487) ... Hornibrook became the sixth coach in Cornell field hockey history in January 2004 ... She has a 209-87-10 (.699) record as a head coach, including a 111-39-4 mark at Houghton and a 60-8-6 record at New Brunswick.
THE BIG RED'S LAST GAME: The Big Red tied the school record for goals in a game as it defeated Bryant, 9-0, on Saturday on Marsha Dodson Field. Catie De Stio led Cornell with three goals and one assist while Maura Greenwood tallied the first points of her collegiate career with two goals and one assist. Kate Thompson also registered one goal and two assists and the Big Red got goals from Katie Kirnan, Carolyn Franco and Sara Sanders. Abbi Horn and Belen Martinez each registered two assists apiece and Jess Buckingham registered an assist as well. In goal, junior Melanie Jue made two saves in the first 30 minutes of the contest before freshman Alex Botte came on in relief and stopped three shots. For the Bulldogs, Kundayi Mawema stopped six shots and allowed six goals in the first half of action and Jennifer Gullotti allowed three goals and made two saves. The Big Red outshot Bryant, 23-8, and held a 10-4 advantage in penalty corners.
SCOUTING THE CRIMSON: Harvard improved to 6-5 on the season when it defeated St. Louis, 6-0, on Monday. The Crimson are led on offense by Leigh McCoy with six goals and two assists for 14 points, while Tami Jafar and Chloe Keating have added five and four goals, respectively, as well as one assist apiece. The trio have have provided an offensive spark for Harvard in the last two games, as each player has scored three goals apiece during that span. Kylie Stone has seen the majority of minutes in goal for Harvard, posting a 1.90 goals-against average while stopping .734 percent of the shots she has faced.
LAST TIME VS. HARVARD: The Big Red held the lead twice, but each time Harvard came back, and eventually escaped Schoellkopf Field with a 3-2 overtime victory on Oct. 7. The Crimson's Devon Shapiro scored off a penalty corner just 1:02 into the sudden victory stanza. After playing to a scoreless draw in the first half, both teams offenses exploded in the second half, with Kate Thompson striking first on a hard shot from the top of the circle to put the home team up, 1-0, at the 40:20 mark. Just less than five minutes later, the Crimson got the equalizer as it drew a penalty corner and Shapiro's shot was redirected into the goal by Kristin Bannon. Cornell responded immediately as Brenna Gulotta sent a perfect cross to the stick of Alyssa DePaola, who one-timed it into the back of the net put the Big Red up, 2-1, at 45:53. It took nearly 11 minutes for the Crimson to knot the game at 2-2, when a two-on-one breakaway led to a goal by Maggie McVeigh, off a pass from Leigh McCoy. Harvard out shot the Big Red, 13-8, and had eight penalty corners, including seven in the second half and overtime, while Cornell earned five. In goal, Shannon Prescott and Kylie Stone each made four saves for their respective teams.
THE CRIMSON'S LAST GAME: Sophomores Chloe Keating, Leigh McCoy and senior Tami Jafar scored two goals apiece to lead Harvard to a 6-0 victory over Saint Louis on Monday afternoon at Jordan Field. Harvard outshot Saint Louis, 25-7. The Billikens only had two shots on goal in the first half, which gave senior co-captain Kylie Stone her only two saves of the afternoon. As time expired in the game, the Billikens earned two penalty corners. Harvard freshman Ana Roda made a crucial save on the first, and sophomore K.J. Warren made a defensive save on the final shot of the game to sustain a Crimson shutout, the Crimson's fourth of the year. SLU goaltenders Alex LaBarge and Katherine Deem combined for 12 saves with seven and five, respectively.
HATS OFF: After going three seasons without seeing a Cornell player score three goals in a single game, the Big Red has had three players register hat tricks so far this year – Abbi Horn (Georgetown, Sept. 21), Kelley Kantarian (Colgate, Oct. 9) and Catie De Stio (Bryant, Oct. 11). Horn's hat trick against the Hoyas was the best single-game performance by a Cornell player since Gina Testa tallied four scores at Rutgers on Oct. 31, 2004. The three hat tricks in a single season is the most by the Big Red since having four during the 1995 season. That year, Cari Hills scored three goals vs. Colgate and four goals against Holy Cross, while Emily Robb tallied three against both Lehigh and Brown. Until this year, Cornell had never had three different players register hat tricks in the same season.
OFFENSIVE ONSLAUGHT: The Big Red defeated Colgate, 6-4, and Bryant, 9-0 on Oct. 9 and Oct. 11, respectively. The combined 15 goals is the largest offensive output in back-to-back games by Cornell since the Big Red defeated St. Lawrence, 6-2, and Rochester, 7-0, in the first two games of the 1974 season.
RECORD WATCH: Cornell is on pace to set the school record for goals in a single season. The Big Red is currently averaging 3.08 goal per game and needs just eight tallies in the final four contests to eclipse the school mark of 44 goals, set in the 2005 season. Cornell is also just six assists away from beating the school record of 36, set in the 2000 season.
MATCHING THE MARK: The Big Red tied the school record for goals in a single game when it defeated Bryant, 9-0, on Oct. 11. That performance came on the heels of a 6-4 victory over Colgate on Oct. 9. Under Coach Hornibrook, the team has scored at least six goals on four occasions.
CIRCLE OF TRUST: Cornell's defense has been extremely calm in the circle this season, allowing just 5.1 penalty corners per game. That is the best school average since the stat began to be recorded in 1998. Since taking over the program, Coach Hornibrook's teams have allowed just 6.8 penalty corners per game. That is significantly down from the 8.4 average prior to her arrival.On the weekend of Oct. 4-5, the Big Red held Yale and Lehigh to just one penalty corner each. That is the best performance in back-to-back games since Cornell held Lafayette and Columbia to one and three penalty corners, respectively, in back-to-back contests in 2006.
QUICK HITS: Abbi Horn scored just 37 seconds into the game against Yale on Oct. 4. The goal was the quickest registered by a Cornell player since Carissa Mirasol scored at the 15-second mark against American on Oct. 28, 2001.
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE (A NEW) HOME: The Big Red is 5-0 on the newly constructed Marsha Dodson Field. Collectively, the team has outscored its opponents by an impressive margin of 20-2 and has taken nearly four times as many shots (107-29) as its opponents. The defense has been equally solid in the circle, allowing just 16 penalty corners (3.2 per game), including giving up just one penalty corner in back-to-back games against Yale and Lehigh.
MOVING ON UP: The weekend of Sept. 20-21 proved to be a successful one for Belen Martinez and Abbi Horn as both moved into the top 10 of several career categories at Cornell. Currently, Martinez ranks seventh in career goals (17), ninth in career points (45) and is just one assist away from moving into the top ten in career assists. Meanwhile, Horn sits in fifth place in career assists (15) and in seventh place in both career goals (17) and career points (49).
STRONG STOPPER: In her first year with the Big Red field hockey team, junior goalkeeper Melanie Jue has been solid, ranking among the best in the nation in save percentage (.768 – 14th) and goals-against average (1.53 – 21st). She has also posted the third-highest number of saves in the nation in a single game with her 19-save performance vs. Albany on Sept. 6, third only to Deitre Corvo (Georgetown), who made 23 saves vs. Syracuse on Oct. 10, and Susie Rowe (Maryland), who made 20 saves against Northwestern on Sept. 7.
WHERE WE RANK: Several Cornell players rank among the best in the conference in several categories. Belen Martinez ranks seventh in goals (6), eighth in points (15) and ninth in goals per game (0.50). Abbi Horn and Catie De Stio are tied with each other in several categories, including ranking second in points (19), third in goals (7), fifth in assists (5), fifth in points per game (1.58), sixth in goals per game (0.58) and ninth in assists per game (0.42). Natalie Appleton is fifth in assists (5) and eighth in assists per game (0.45), while Kate Thompson is fourth in both assists (6) and assists per game (0.50). Kelley Kantarian ranks 10th in goals (5). Goalie Melanie Jue is second in goals-against average (1.53), third in save percentage (.768), sixth in saves (53) and seventh in saves per game (4.82).
CLOSE CALLS: Cornell's 1-0 victory over Yale in overtime on Oct. 4 continued the Big Red's trend of playing in one-goal games. Since the start of the 2006 season, the Big Red has lost 20 games, with 14 of those coming by a single goal, including seven in overtime. During that same span, Cornell has won 11 one-goal games. So far this season, all four of Cornell's losses have come in one-goal contests, including one in overtime.
COMING AT YOU FROM ALL SIDES: Since taking over the Cornell program in 2004, Coach Hornibrook has had a dozen or more players register at least one point in three-of-four seasons, with a high of 14 in 2005. So far this season, 13 different Big Red players have registered at least on point.
KNOCK THREE TIMES: When the Big Red fell to Syracuse during the 2006 season, 4-3, in overtime, it marked the first time in Coach Hornibrook's career with Cornell that the team scored three goals and lost the contest. Under Coach Hornibrook, the Big Red improved to 23-1 in games in which it scores at least three goals after a 9-0 victory over Bryant on Oct 11.
FAST STARTS: Scoring first has been a big part of the Big Red's success in recent years. Since Coach Hornibrook has taken over the program, Cornell has posted an impressive 35-8 record in games in which they have scored first. Conversely, the team has won only three games in which they have had to come back from an early deficit to win. The first was Coach Hornibrook's very first victory with the team, a 6-3 win over Lehigh in 2004, with the latest coming this past week as Cornell defeated Colgate, 6-4.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Two Cornell players have earned Ivy League Player of the Week honors so far this season – Catie De Stio and Abbi Horn. De Stio was given the award on Oct. 7 after a stellar weekend in which she registered both game-winning goals as the Big Red defeated Yale, 2-1, in overtime and Lehigh, 2-0. She also assisted on Cornell's first goal against Yale for a five-point weekend. Horn was named the Ivy League Player of the Week on Sept. 23, following an outstanding weekend against Penn and Georgetown. Horn assisted on the final goal in Cornell's 3-1 victory over the Quakers, but that paled in comparison to her performance on Sunday in which she registered a hat trick against the Hoyas.
ROOKIE OF THE WEEK: Melanie Jue was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week on Sept. 9 after helping the Big Red open the season with a 1-1 record. In her first collegiate start, Jue made 19 saves against No. 19 Albany before dropping a 1-0 decision to the Great Danes on Sept. 6. The following day, Jue was not called upon to make a single save as she recorded her first career shutout. Jue, who is a junior at Cornell, is considered a rookie because she has not played field hockey at the collegiate level prior to this season.\
THAT'S A START: Cornell goalie Alex Botte got her first collegiate start against Fairfield on Sept. 28. The freshman netminder stopped six shots in a 1-0 loss.
IVY OPENERS: Cornell opened its 30th season of play in the Ivy League on Sept. 20 with a 3-1 victory over Penn. With the win, the Big Red improved to 12-15-3 all-time in conference season openers, thanks mostly to an 9-3 record since 1997. Cornell has played only four of the seven Ivy League teams in its season openers through the years. Cornell has had its best outings in Ivy League openers against Yale (1-0) and Columbia (6-1). The Big Red has played Princeton more than any other team in conference openers (14), posting a 3-9-2 record, but the two teams have not met in the season opener since 1999. Cornell has met Penn eight times in its conference opener, posting a 2-5-1 record against the Quakers. All but two of those games came prior to the 1989 season, with the 2002 and 2008 meetings proving to be Big Red victories.
A RUDE WELCOME: After a two-year hiatus from field hockey, junior Melanie Jue saw action in her first collegiate game, getting the start in goal vs. No. 19 Albany on Sept. 6. The two-sport athlete was called on to make 19 saves during the contest, the most since Kaitlin Tierney stopped 20 shots vs. Princeton on Oct. 21, 2000.
BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK: Cornell has posted a winning record in Ivy League action in each of the last three seasons (5-2 in 2007, 4-3 in 2005 and 2006), marking the first time in program history that the Big Red field hockey team has had three straight winning records in conference play.
RANKED OPPONENTS: Cornell is 0-1 this season against ranked opponents after losing in the first weekend of play to No. 19 Albany. Last year, the Big Red was 2-1 vs. teams that were ranked in the NFHCA rankings, with its only loss coming to No. 15 Albany.
FOR OPENERS: After the loss to No. 19 Albany, the Big Red is 21-12-4 (.636) all-time in season-openers … The loss vs. the Great Danes was Coach Hornibrook's first in season-openers during her time with Cornell (4-1).
THE 200: Coach Hornibrook secured her 200th career win last season as the Big Red defeated Siena, 4-2, on Oct. 28, 2007.
UP NEXT: The Big Red remains on the road next weekend, traveling to Providence, R.I., to take on Brown on Saturday, Oct. 25 at noon.
