GAME INFORMATION
GAME #1: Cornell at No. 19 Albany
GAMETIME: Saturday, Sept. 6, at 1:00 p.m.
SITE: Alumni Turf Field (Albany, N.Y.)
2008 RECORDS: Cornell (0-0); Albany (1-1)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 3-2
LAST MEETING: Albany won 5-1, on Oct. 13, 2007, at Ithaca, N.Y.
LIVE STATS: None
GAME #2: Cornell vs. Siena
GAMETIME: Sunday, Sept. 7, at 5 p.m.
SITE: Alumni Turf Field (Albany, N.Y.)
2008 RECORDS: Cornell (0-0); Siena (0-1)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 3-0
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 4-2, on Oct. 28, 2007, at Ithaca, N.Y.
LIVE STATS: None
THE HEAD COACH: Cornell head coach Donna Hornibrook is in her fifth season at Cornell (30-36, .455) ... Hornibrook became the sixth coach in Cornell field hockey history in January 2004 ... She has a 201-83-10 (.701) record as a head coach, including a 111-39-4 mark at Houghton and a 60-8-6 record at New Brunswick.
THE MATCHUP WITH ALBANY: The Big Red opens its 37th season of field hockey on Saturday afternoon when it travels to Albany to take on the No. 19 Great Danes at Alumni Turf Field at 1:00 p.m. Cornell holds the lead in the series, 3-2, but dropped a 5-1 decision last year to Albany on Schoellkopf Field.
SCOUTING THE GREAT DANES: Albany was chosen to finish first in the America East Conference Preseason Poll, as voted by the league's head coaches. The Great Danes were picked to dethrone Boston University, the conference champions for the past three seasons, receiving four of five possible first-place votes for 24 total points. Senior midfielder Michelle Simpson, a two-time all-conference player who earned second-team All-America honors last season after recording 34 total points, is among the top returnees. The Great Danes also return senior goalkeeper Ashley Ross, who led the America East and was fourth in the nation with a 1.14 goals-against average. UAlbany owns a 1-1 record on the season, defeating Radford, 3-0, before falling to No. 15 American, 2-0.
THE LAST TIME VS. ALBANY:The Big Red faced its first ranked team of the 2007 season as it dropped a 5-1 decision to No. 17 Albany at Schoellkopf Field. The game was statistically an even one, but the Great Danes proved to be dangerous off of penalty corners, converting three of its first six attempts to build a 3-0 lead midway through the second half. The Great Danes pushed the lead to 4-0 in the 50th minute before Cornell got on the board, scoring off a restart as Sara Sanders found a seam and sent a long pass to Brenna Gulotta. Gulotta beat her defender before crossing the ball to Catie De Stio, who beat Albany goalie Ashley Ross. Albany's Anouk Vandenberg registered her fifth point of the game when she scored the final goal for the Great Danes with under three minutes to play. Albany held the advantage in shots, 15-10, and penalty corners, 7-5. Shannon Prescott made five saves, while teammates Katlyn Donoghue and Natalie Appleton were both credited with one defensive save each. Ross stopped four shots for the Great Danes.
THE GREAT DANES' LAST GAME:After a scoreless first half, No. 15 American scored two unanswered goals late in the second stanza to take a 2-0 victory over No. 19 American on Aug. 31. Eagles sophomore Kirstin Gebhart scored first with an unassisted goal at 47:05, while Emily Stovicek recorded her second goal of the season for American at the 54:59 mark. The Eagles held a 12-11 shot advantage over UAlbany, while the Great Danes had six penalty corners to the Eagles' four. Ashley Ross finished with six saves in the cage for UAlbany, while Alyssa Poorman recorded seven saves between the pipes for American.
VS. THE AMERICA EAST CONFERENCE: Cornell is 3-7 all-time vs. the current members of the America East Conference, with all three victories coming vs. Albany (3-2). The Big Red has a losing record against Boston University (0-1), Vermont (0-2) and Maine (0-2). Cornell has never faced Fairfield or New Hampshire ...Cornell is 0-4 vs. the America East Conference during Coach Hornibrook's tenure with two losses to Vermont and one loss to Maine and Albany.
THE MATCHUP WITH SIENA: Cornell will remain in Albany to play the Saints on Sunday, Sept. 7, at Alumni Turf Field on the on the University at Albany campus. It will be the fourth meeting all-time between the two programs since they first met in 1994, with the Big Red holding the 3-0 advantage.
SCOUTING THE SAINTS: The Saints opened their second season under head coach Bill Davidson with a 5-1 loss to Colgate. Siena is looking to improve upon a 2007 campaign in which the Green and Gold finished 2-12 overall and 1-6 in the Northeast Conference. The Saints return eight letter winners and six starters in total from a largely revamped squad which features nine newcomers. Among the returning starters is the team's active scoring leader, Kristin McGorty, who tallied Siena's lone goal against the Raiders for the seventh score of her career, as well as goalie Renee Clavelle, who posted a solid .731 save percentage, but allowed 3.08 goals-against. Siena will play host to Hofstra on Friday, Sept. 5 at 7 p.m.
THE LAST TIME VS. SIENA:Head coach Donna Hornibrook notched her 200th career victory (her 29th with the Big Red) on Senior Day, as the Big Red defeated Siena, 4-2. Abbi Horn led the team with two goals and one assist, while Lizzie Goldblatt made four saves to earn the win. After a rocky start, the Big Red completely dominated the game, holding the edge in shots, 25-7, and penalty corners, 10-2. Cornell put 19 of its shots on cage, forcing Siena goalie Renee Clavette to make 14 saves, while Emily Winslow registered a defensive save for the Saints. Belen Martinez got Cornell on the board in just the ninth minute of play as she converted a penalty corner to put the Big Red up, 1-0, but Siena struck right back, as Andrea Caso buried a rebound into the far corner of the goal to knot the game, 1-1, at the 11:31 mark. Just under 10 minutes later, Horn registered her first goal of the day to restore the Cornell lead at 2-1. The Big Red extended its advantage in the 29th minute when Martinez fired a shot towards goal and Catie De Stio redirected it past Clavette to give Cornell the 3-1 advantage going into the intermission. Siena pulled back within one with a goal from Anne Linley, but that was as close as it would get as Horn converted off another penalty corner opportunity with just under nine minutes left to play.
THE SAINTS' LAST GAME: Colgate tallied two goals in the opening nine minutes of action and never looked back in defeating Siena, 5-1 on Aug. 29 in the season opener for both squads at Tyler's Field in Hamilton, N.Y. Junior midfielder Kristin McGorty recorded the lone goal for the Green and Gold. The Raiders opened with a flurry, controlling the action deep in the Siena zone for most of the opening half. The Raiders took a 2-0 lead into the half, before extending the advantage to 4-0 late in the second half. The Saints avoided the shutout when McGorty, the Saints active all-time leading scorer, broke down the center of the field and fired a shot from 10 yards out past the Raiders goalie in the 68th minute. Colgate added a late goal off a penalty corner as time expired to account for the 4-1 final. For the game, the Raiders outshot the Saints 20-6, and held the 8-4 advantage on corners. Siena goalie Renee Clavette made five saves and allowed two goals before giving way to Jennifer Tesak, who made one save and allowed three goals in the second half. For Colgate, Sarah Pedersen made three saves and posted a shutout in 63:14 before Kirsten Lalli came on in relief and gave up one goal.
VS. THE NEC: Cornell is 7-2 all-time vs. the current members of the Northeast Conference. The Big Red has a winning record vs. Siena (3-0) Rider (2-1), St. Francis (Pa.) (1-0) and Sacred Heart (1-0), and a losing record against Lock Haven (0-1), but has never faced Monmouth, Quinnipiac and Robert Morris.
FOR OPENERS: The Big Red is 21-11-4 (.638) all-time in season-openers … Coach Hornibrook is undefeated in season-openers during her time with Cornell (4-0).
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.
THE 200: Coach Hornibrook secured her 200th career win last season as the Big Red defeated Siena, 4-2, on Oct. 28, 2007.
RANKED OPPONENTS: Last year, the Big Red was 2-1 vs. teams that were ranked in the NFHCA rankings. Cornell defeated No. 18 Princeton, 4-3, and No. 19 Syracuse, 3-2. The lone loss to a ranked opponent came to No. 15 Albany.
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.
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 is 17-1 in games in which it scores at least three goals.
CLOSE CALLS: Since the start of the 2006 season, the Big Red has lost 16 games, with 10 of those coming by a single goal, including six in overtime. During that same span, Cornell has won nine one-goal games.
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 28-7 record in games in which they have scored first. Conversely, the team has won only two 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 during the 2007 season as the Big Red came back to defeat Princeton, 4-3.
UP NEXT: The Big Red will stay on the road next weekend, playing back-to-back games at Lock Haven on Friday, Sept. 12 and Bucknell on Saturday, Sept. 13. Game times are at 4 p.m., and 1 p.m., respectively.
