GAME INFORMATION
GAME #10: No. 8 Harvard at Cornell
DATE: Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009
TIME: 7:00 p.m.
SITE: Ithaca, N.Y. - Berman Field (1,000)
2009 RECORDS: Cornell - 4-3-2 (0-0-1 Ivy League); Harvard - 7-1-0 (1-0-0 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Harvard leads, 38-20-13
LAST MEETING: Harvard won, 2-0, on Oct. 11, 2008, in Cambridge, Mass.
LIVE STATS: http://sidearmstats.com/cornell/msoc

The Cornell men's soccer team will play host to Harvard in the Ivy League home opener on Saturday as part of a doubleheader with the Cornell women's team. The match is the Big Red's toughest task to date, as the Crimson enter the game ranked eighth in the nation in the latest NSCAA poll.


HEAD COACH JARO ZAWISLAN
Jaro Zawislan is in his first season directing the Cornell men's soccer program, becoming the 11th head coach in Cornell history. Zawislan, who spent the last seven seasons as an assistant coach at Syracuse, made his collegiate head coaching debut against the Orange, a 2-1 Cornell loss, but picked up his first career win two days later at Hartwick. His coaching career also includes stops at Stanford and Creighton following a decorated playing career at Clemson. A 1993 graduate of Clemson, Zawislan played professionally in both the United States and his native Poland before turning to coaching. He is assisted by Joe Schneck, in his fourth season with the Big Red.

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell opened Ivy League play with a 2-2 tie at the defending league champions, Penn, last weekend in Philadelphia. The draw gave the Big Red ended a string of eight straight defeats in league play and saw the Big Red score half of the total goals scored in conference action last season. Chase Aaronson and Kyle Parsons both scored their second goals of the season in the draw with the Quakers, while Scott Brody picked up a pair of saves in the tie, his second of the season. For the year, senior Matt Bouraee leads the Big Red with two goals and five assists for nine points, while Aaronson, Parsons and Brett Sumpio also have a pair of goals on the year. Brody has seen the vast majority of time in goal, posting a 1.38 goals-against average and a .764 save percentage to go along with a pair of shutouts.

ABOUT HARVARD
The Crimson opened the Ivy League season with a 1-0 double-overtime victory over Yale on Saturday in New Haven, Conn., with Brian Rogers scoring the game-winner with little over seven minutes remaining in the match. Andre Akpan leads the Crimson offense with six goals and five assists for 17 points, while Rogers has five goals and three assists for 13 points, with three game-winning goals. Austin Harms has seen the majority of time in goal, posting a sparkling 0.38 goals-against average and a .880 save percentage with four shutouts in the Crimson's first eight matches.

THE SERIES WITH HARVARD
The Crimson lead the all-time series, 38-20-13, and have won each of the last three meetings, including a 2-0 victory last season in Cambridge, Mass. Cornell's last win in the series came on Oct. 8, 2005, in Ithaca, N.Y., a 3-2 victory.

BRODY'S BEEN BUSY
Cornell goalkeeper Scott Brody leads the Ivy League in saves, posting 42 saves through the Big Red's first nine games. The next closest save total belongs to Columbia's Alexander Aurrichio, who has posted 31 saves in eight matches.

MUST-SEE CU
With the Ivy League boasting a number of outstanding teams and players, including three teams ranked among the top 25 in the nation in the latest NSCAA poll, it's a bit surprising to see the Big Red ranking third among all Ivy League teams in average attendance. Cornell trails Dartmouth and Brown, averaging 811 and 628 people per match, respectively. On the road, Cornell is clearly the most-watched team, averaging 978 spectators in the four contests away from Ithaca. Cornell is the only school among the eight Ivy League teams to average more than 700 spectators per road game.

PLAYMAKERS
Saturday's match will feature two of the Ivy League's top playmakers in Harvard's Andre Akpan and Cornell's Matt Bouraee. The duo are currently tied for the league lead with five assists apiece. Akpan has also scored six goals to rank second in the league, while his 17 points are tops in the Ivy. Bouraee, for his part, ranks tied for eighth with his nine points on the year.

DUCK DUCK GOOSE-EGG
A year ago, Cornell couldn't avoid the shutout, as the Big Red was blanked 11 times - this season, that number stands at just one after being shut out against Binghamton on Sept. 23. Even more impressive is the fact that Cornell has scored against two of the stingiest defenses in college soccer, scoring one of the three goals conceeded by Hartwick, the second-ranked team in the country in goals-against average, and one of three goals allowed by Monmouth, ranked sixth in goals-against average, this season.

HE SHOOTS, HE SCORES!
Just halfway through the 2009 season, the Big Red has already scored more goals than throughout the entire 2008 campaign. With two goals on Sept. 27 against Long Island, the Big Red reached nine goals this year, surpassing the eight scored all of last year when the Big Red was shut out 11 times.

CLIMBING THE LIST
Senior Matt Bouraee is quickly approaching the all-time top-10 list for career points, as the Manasquan, N.J., native is just four points shy of tying Chris Agoliati for 10th place. Bouraee entered the season with 32 career points and has added nine so far this year. Bouraee's 41 points currently have him ranked in a tie for 15th all-time at Cornell. Meanwhile, his 16 career goals have him ranked tied with Agoliati for 12th all-time, four goals shy of moving into the top 10.

THE WINNER
Scott Brody is approaching the all-time top-10 in career wins, currently standing in a three-way tie for 11th with Dave Weed and Stephen Bott. Brody has a career record of 7-10-2, and would tie Hugh O'Gorman and David Weed with his next win.

COMEBACK KIDS
Twice already this season, the Big Red rallied late to get a positive result. On Sept. 11 at Canisius, the Big Red fell behind in the 75th minute, only to tie the game six minutes later to force overtime. Two days later, Cornell rallied from another second half deficit to first tie, then go ahead against St. Bonaventure for the second victory of the year.

SECOND HALF TEAM
The Big Red has excelled in the second half of games this season, scoring eight of the 11 goals after halftime. Three times this season, the Big Red has scored a goal in the final 10 minutes of the game to give the Big Red a needed result. The trend began on Sept. 7 at Hartwick when Kyle Parsons scored with just under eight minutes left for the 1-0 victory. Four days later, Matt Bouraee scored his first goal of the season in the 81st minute to give the Big Red a 1-1 tie at Canisius. Then, on Sept. 13 against St. Bonaventure, Scott Caldwell scored his first goal of the year with five and a half minutes left for a 2-1 win over the Bonnies.

LOVING HARTWICK
Junior goalkeeper Scott Brody likely couldn't be blamed if he wanted to play Hartwick every week. In two career games against the Hawks, Brody has a pair of shutouts against Hartwick. The first came in his first career start as a freshman in 2007, with the second coming on Sept. 7 in Oneonta. Brody added his third career clean sheet on Sept. 20 against Fairleigh Dickinson.

FOR STARTERS
Cornell is 33-23-8 in season openers dating back to the 1946 season. The 2009 season marked the third time that Cornell opened a season against Syracuse, with Cornell now holding a 2-1 lead against the Orange in season openers.

FOREIGN INFLUENCE
Five different countries are represented on the 2009 Cornell men's soccer roster, with the United States (24), Canada (2), Brazil (1), Bulgaria (1) and China (1) claiming team members.

NATIONAL APPEAL
Among the 24 players on the Cornell roster from the United States, the Big Red has drawn heavily from New York and New Jersey to fill out the roster. The Garden State leads all states with seven players calling New Jersey home, while six players reside in New York. Illinois, Ohio and Massachusetts each have two players, while Arizona, California, Connecticut, Indiana and Michigan have a single player on the Cornell roster.

UP NEXT
Cornell takes a brief break from the Ivy League schedule to take on Central New York rival Colgate in a 7 p.m. contest on Tues., Oct. 13, at Berman Field.