MATCH INFORMATION
MATCH #16: Cornell vs. Yale
MATCH TIME: Friday, Oct. 16, 2009; 7:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Newman Arena (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Yale leads, 26-25
LAST MEETING: Yale won 3-0, on Nov. 8, 2008
2009 RECORDS: Cornell 5-10 (2-2 Ivy); Yale 12-2 (2-1 Ivy)
LIVE STATS: www.CornellBigRed.com
LIVE VIDEO: http://www.cornellbigred.com/showcase/

MATCH #17: Cornell vs. Brown
MATCH TIME: Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009; 4:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Newman Arena (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 34-16
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 3-1, on Nov. 7, 2008
2009 RECORDS: Cornell 4-9 (1-1 Ivy)*; Brown 4-10 (0-3 Ivy)*
LIVE STATS: www.CornellBigRed.com
LIVE VIDEO: http://www.cornellbigred.com/showcase/

* Records prior to Friday, Oct. 16 


 


MATCH NOTES
THE MATCHUP: The Big Red looks to have a happy Homecoming Weekend as it welcomes Yale and Brown to Newman Arena. The game with the Bulldogs is slated for Friday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m., while the game with the Bears will take place on Saturday, Oct. 17 at 4:00 p.m.

SCOUTING YALE: The Bulldogs dropped its first Ivy League game, and just its second game overall on the season, when it fell to Penn last weekend, 3-2. Yale (12-2, 2-1 Ivy) is led by senior outside hitter Cat Dailey, who is averaging a league-best 4.28 kills per set and is hitting an impressive .298 on the season, while her teammate Taylor Cramm is leading the conference in hitting percentage (.342). Setter Kerry Clavadetcher ranks second in the Ivy League with 10.03 assists per set, while Kelly Ozurovich is second in the conference standings with 5.55 digs per set.

THE SERIES VS. THE BULLDOGS: Cornell and Yale first met in 1976, a 2-0 Bulldog victory, in the first year of the Ivy League Tournament. Yale went on to win the next four contests before the Big Red earned its first win in the series during the 1981 campaign. The Bulldogs have won the past two meetings, but since the 2000 season, the teams have been remarkably even, with Yale holding the slight 9-8 advantage during that span and a mark of 26-25 overall in the all-time series.

LAST TIME VS. YALE: The Big Red lost to Yale, 3-0, in New Haven, Conn., on Nov. 18, 2008. Juliana Rogers led the Big Red for the second night in a row with 13 kills. The Bulldogs and Big Red were tied at 12 all in the first set before Yale pulled away to a 25-15 win. Junior libero Megan Mushovic had five digs, while Hilary Holland had 12 assists. Rogers hit .500 in the set with six kills. Yale took a quick lead in the second set and never looked back on its way to a 25-18 victory. Mushovic had seven digs. The Big Red held a 14-10 lead in the third set, but the Bulldogs rallied to pull out a 25-19 match-winning set. Rogers notched five kills, and Holland recorded 13 assists. The Big Red hit .351 as a team in the set. Holland totaled 32 assists with 11 digs. Mushovic had a match-high 15 digs, and freshman Risa Ka'awa added 11. Kathryn Woodbury added seven kills for Cornell. Yale was led by Cat Dailey with 20 kills while hitting .526, and Alexis Crusey had 15 kills with a .428 hitting percentage. Kelly Ozurovich totaled a match-high 17 digs.

SCOUTING BROWN: The Bears bring a four-match losing streak to Newman Arena with its last victory coming against Howard (3-0) on Sept. 26. Brown (4-10, 0-3 Ivy) is led by Megan Toman with 2.40 kills per set, while Moira Gallagher and Christina Berrer are averaging 2.04 and 2.02 kills per set, respectively. Defensively, Carly Cotton ranks fourth in the Ivy League with 4.91 digs per set. As a team, the Bears rank first in the conference with 1.81 service aces per set, as the team has three players – Cotton (0.40), Toman (0.35) and Laurielle Hofer (0.34) ranking in the top-five of the conference standings for service aces per set.

THE SERIES VS. THE BEARS: Like its series with Yale, Cornell's series with Brown also began in the 1976 season during the first-ever Ivy League tournament. The Big Red has dominated from the beginning, winning the first seven meetings before falling to the Bears in 1984. Cornell owns a 34-16 record in the all-time series, winning 14 of the last 17 meetings, including both games last season.

LAST TIME VS. BROWN: Cornell snapped a three-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory at Brown on Nov. 7, 2008. Juliana Rogers led the Big Red offense with 15 kills while hitting a season-high .314. The Big Red and the Bears traded points back and forth throughout the first set, before tying it up at 22 all. With two Cornell kills and a Bears' attacking error, the Big Red secured a 25-22 win. Rogers and Kathryn Woodbury each hit .500 in the set, making five and four kills, respectively. Senior setter Hilary Holland had 17 assists, and freshman Risa Ka'awa notched six digs. Brown held a slight advantage during the second set and continued on to a 25-22 win. Holland had nine digs. The Big Red jumped out to a quick lead in the third set and never looked back on its way to a 25-20 victory. Sophomore Erin McCarthy had two service aces in the win. Cornell took control early in the fourth set and cruised to a 25-14 match-winning set. Junior libero Megan Mushovic had seven digs, and the Big Red held Brown to a -0.062 hitting percentage. Ka'awa notched a career-high 13 digs, while Mushovic had a match-high 18. Holland had 37 assists and 16 digs and five block assists. Brown was led by Megan Toman and Lyndse Yess with 14 kills each. Spencer McAndrews had a match-high 44 assists.

CORNELL'S LAST GAME: The Big Red jumped out to a two-set lead and then fought back from a seven-point deficit in the fourth set to defeat Dartmouth, 3-1, at Newman Arena. The Big Red won sets one and two, 25-17 and 25-22, respectively, before dropping the third set, 25-22. In the final and deciding set, Cornell earned a 26-24 victory to improve to 5-10 on the year and 2-2 in the Ivy League. The Big Red had two players register double-digit kills, with Deveney Pula (15) and Alessa Cekauskas (11) leading the way. Cekauskas was extremely accurate in the match, with just one error on 33 attempts to hit for .303. Jordan Reeder had an excellent afternoon with 39 assists, 24 digs and five kills with just one error on nine attempts (.444). Joining Reeder with double-digit digs was Megan Mushovic, with a game-high 30, and Risa Ka'awa with 17. Dartmouth (7-7, 3-1) was led by Madeline Baird's 18 kills, while Megan MacGregor chipped in 10. Kendall Houston (22 assists) and Brianne Hucek (15) split the setting duties, while Amber Bryant (25 digs) and Jessie Hartman (18) split time at libero.

MEET THE NEW BOSS: After serving as an assistant coach for the past five seasons, Sarah Bernson was named the ninth Wendy Schaenen '79 Head Coach of Volleyball at Cornell. In her five seasons as an assistant with the Big Red, Bernson helped the program to three Ivy titles (2004, 2005, 2006) and two NCAA tournament appearances (2005 and 2006). She has helped develop 16 All-Ivy performers over that span. Bernson was in charge of the program's recruiting and worked with the outside hitters, including the Big Red's all-time kills leader and first volleyball All-American in school history, Elizabeth Bishop '07.

TRIPLE DIP: The Big Red had three players register double-digit kills in its last match, a 3-1 victory over Dartmouth, as Megan Mushovic tallied a game-high 30, while Jordan Reeder and Risa Ka'awa registered 24 and 17 digs, respectively. The last time Cornell had three players register at least 10 digs in a four-set match also came against the Big Green when Mushovic (19), Hilary Holland (17) and Erin McCarthy (10) reached the mark in a 3-1 Big Red victory.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Jordan Reeder was named the Ivy League Player of the Week for the first time in her career, after helping the Big Red earn the first conference win of head coach Sarah Bernson's career as the team defeated Columbia, 3-0, on Oct. 3. Reeder had the best match of her career, as she posted 34 assists to lead the Big Red offense. The sophomore setter also registered seven digs, two block assists, one service ace, and had two kills with no errors on four attempts (.500).

RECORD SETTER: Three-time all-conference libero Megan Mushovic set the Cornell record for career digs last season, tallying 1,612 digs in just three years. With her 22 digs vs. Hartford on Sept. 26, she surpassed the Ivy League record for career digs with 1,777, passing Brown's Tomo Nakanishi '99 at 1,762 … Mushovic also owns the top two spots in Cornell's list of single season digs, with 598 in 2007 and 549 in 2008.

ALL TOURNAMENT TEAM: Deveney Pula was named to two all-tournament teams this season, making the Cornell Invitational team after earning similar honors at the Binghamton Invitational. At the Cornell Invitational, Pula led the Big Red with 26 kills on 91 attempts over three matches, to go along with 22 digs. At the Binghamton Invitational, Pula registered 26 kills on 92 attempts with just 10 errors for a kill percentage of .174. She also registered 32 digs, two service aces, two block assists and one assist.

MISSING MISSE: Jessica Misse had not seen the court in two years due to a myriad of injuries, but she saw significant action at the Binghamton Invitational on the weekend of Sept. 11-12. The senior middle blocker saw action in all three games and posted 12 kills and four blocks during the tournament. So far this season, Misse has seen action in 11 matches, registering 55 kills and just 21 errors on 134 attempts, for a team-best .254 kill percentage.

DIGS A LOT: Despite falling to Morehead State in the season opener, the match proved to be yet another opportunity for senior libero Megan Mushovic to write her name in the Cornell record books, as she posted the third-best performance in school history for digs in a three game match, finishing the day with 26.

SAFE SERVING: The Big Red has done an outstanding job of keeping serving errors to a minimum, registering just 96 on the season (1.8 per set). At the same time, Big Red opponents have posted 129 serving errors (2.4 per set).

SETTING UP: Sophomore Jordan Reeder saw the first significant action of her career, surpassing her career assist total during the opening weekend. Reeder, who entered the Patriot Invitational with 22 career assists, racked up 68 assists on the weekend, including a career-high 33 vs. George Mason (four sets).

HI! MY NAME IS: There is a new face on the Cornell sideline, as Chris Duenow, the all-time winningest head volleyball coach at Concordia University (Ore.), joins Coach Bernson's staff as an assistant coach. Duenow was the head coach at Concordia for seven seasons, posting a 108-89 record overall and a 73-39 mark in the Cascade Collegiate Conference, including the 2002 league title. That 2002 team went 24-3 overall and posted a perfect 18-0 league mark, extending its conference win streak to 65 regular season victories. He helped mentor 14 first-team all-league selections, six first-team all-region picks, one All-American and one conference Rookie of the Year.

SEASON OPENERS: Cornell is 25-12-1 all-time in season openers. Since 1995, the Big Red is an impressive 12-3 in the first match of the season.

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN: Seniors Megan Mushovic and Juliana Rogers have been named co-captains for the 2009 season. Mushovic has been one of the top liberos in the nation over the past three seasons, while Rogers became one of the top offensive weapons for the Big Red as a junior leading the team in kills per set (2.66) and placing second in total kills (221).

FRESH FACES: The Big Red added seven freshmen to the team this season - Sydney Campbell, Alice Cope, Hanna Drake, Taylor Nieman, Deveney Pula, Ana Vanjak, Lucy Zheng. Among the seven, five are taller than 5'10", with three of those five standing 6'2" or taller. The rookie class also draws heavily on key volleyball-playing states, as four of the players hail from California, with another two from Texas. The seventh, Vanjak, is originally from Croatia but has lived in Germany for the past few years.

RECAPPING 2008: The Big Red volleyball team closed out its 2008 season tied for third place in the Ivy League with a 9-5 record and was 10-15 overall for the season. Megan Mushovic, Emily Borman and Hilary Holland each earned All-Ivy honors following the season. Mushovic was named first-team for the second-straight season at libero after leading the league in digs. Borman received second-team honors at middle blocker, and Holland was an honorable mention selection at the setter position.

UP NEXT: Cornell is back in action next weekend, as it travels to Penn on Friday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m., and Princeton on Saturday, Oct. 24 at 4 p.m.