MATCH INFORMATION
MATCH #24: Cornell at Brown
MATCH TIME: Friday, Nov. 13, 2009; 5:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Pizzitola Center (Providence, R.I.)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 35-16
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 3-1, on Oct. 17, 2009
2009 RECORDS: Cornell: 6-17 (3-9 Ivy); Brown: 5-17 (1-10 Ivy)
LIVE STATS: None
LIVE VIDEO: http://www.brownbears.com/multimedia/schedule  

MATCH 25: Cornell at Yale
MATCH TIME: Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009; 4:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Lee Amphitheater (New Haven, Conn.)
SERIES RECORD: Yale leads, 27-25
LAST MEETING: Yale won 3-0, on Oct. 16, 2009
2009 RECORDS: Cornell: 6-17 (3-9 Ivy)*; Yale: 18-4 (8-3 Ivy)*
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.prestosports.com/yale/  
LIVE VIDEO: http://www.stretchinternet.com/yalevideo.html  

* Records prior to Friday, Nov. 13

MATCH NOTES
THE MATCHUP: The Big Red closes its season on the road this weekend and takes on Brown and Yale. The game with the Bears is slated for Friday, Nov. 13 at 5 p.m., while the game with the Bulldogs will take place on Saturday, Nov. 14 at 4:00 p.m.

SCOUTING BROWN: The Bears bring a four-match losing streak into the match with its last victory coming against Dartmouth (3-0) on Oct. 24. Brown (5-17, 1-10 Ivy) is led by Brianna Williamson with 2.53 kills per set, while Megan Toman and Moira Gallagher are averaging 2.47 and 2.00 kills per set, respectively. Defensively, Carly Cotton ranks fourth in the Ivy League with 4.99 digs per set. As a team, the Bears rank first in the conference with 1.60 service aces per set, as the team has two players – Cotton (0.37) and Toman (0.31) ranking in the top-five of the conference standings for service aces per set.

THE SERIES VS. THE BEARS: Cornell's series with Brown began in the 1976 season and the Big Red has dominated from the beginning, winning the first seven meetings before falling to the Bears for the first time in 1984. Cornell owns a 35-16 record in the all-time series, winning 15 of the last 18 meetings, including the last three contests.

LAST TIME VS. BROWN: The Big Red won the first two sets, and then erased an eight-point deficit in the fourth set to defeat Brown, 3-1, on Oct. 17 in Newman Arena. Deveney Pula led the Cornell attack with 11 kills on 38 attempts, while Alessa Cekauskas tallied nine kills and Kelly Hansen chipped in eight. Cekauskas and Hansen also registered six and five block assists, respectively. Lucy Zheng got the starting setting duties for the match and responded with a career-high 36 assists, while Megan Mushovic registered a team-high 24 digs. Pula also reached double-digit digs with 10. Brown was led by Moira Gallagher's 12 kills and just two errors on 30 attempts for a .333 hitting percentage. Spencer McAndrews had a game-high 37 assists and Carly Cotton posted 25 digs.

SCOUTING YALE: The Bulldogs split a pair of matches last weekend, defeating Harvard (3-2), before falling to Dartmouth (3-1) to fall to 18-4 ovearll and 8-3 in the Ivy League. Yale is led by Taylor Cramm, who ranks second in the conference in hitting percentage (.317), while Cat Dailey is averaging a league-best 4.02 kills per set. Setter Kerry Clavadetcher ranks second in the Ivy League with 10.76 assists per set, while Kelly Ozurovich is second in the conference standings with 5.34 digs per set.

THE SERIES VS. THE BULLDOGS: Cornell and Yale first met in 1976, a 2-0 Bulldog victory. 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 three meetings, but since the 2000 season, the teams have been remarkably even, with Yale holding the slight 10-8 advantage during that span and a mark of 27-25 overall in the all-time series.

LAST TIME VS. YALE: Cornell showed flashes of excellence, but not enough to top Yale in a 3-0 Bulldog victory on Oct. 16 at Newman Arena in Bartels Hall. The visitors took home a 26-24, 25-23, 25-14 triumph.Freshman Deveney Pula had nine kills, 10 digs, three blocks and two service aces in a balanced effort, while Juliana Rogers had six kills and four blocks. Jordan Reeder led the team with 23 assists and Megan Mushovic notched 16 digs. Cornell hit .139 for the match.Yale senior outside hitter Cat Dailey had 12 kills and nine digs while hitting .303 for the match, while Haley Wessels had 10 kills and four blocks. Kelly Ozurovich posted a match-high 25 digs and Kerry Clavadetscher recorded 34 assists, six digs and three blocks. Yale hit .239 for the match and served tough with seven total aces.

CORNELL'S LAST GAME: The Big Red nearly handed Penn its first Ivy League loss of the season on Nov. 7 at Newman Arena, but came up just short, falling to the Quakers, 3-2. The Big Red won the first two sets, 25-22 and 25-21, before dropping the next three, 25-23, 25-21 and 15-12. Cornell was led by Deveney Pula with 19 kills, while Kelly Hansen (13), Alessa Cekauskas (12) and Juliana Rogers (11) all posted double-digit kills. Jordan Reeder had a career-high 55 assists, to go along with 21 digs. Senior libero Megan Mushovic reached yet another milestone in her illustrious career, as her team-high 22 digs pushed her past the 2,000 dig plateau. Risa Ka'awa also chipped in 18 digs. Penn also had four players with double-digit kills, led by Julia Swanson with 19, while Elizabeth Semmens chipped in 17. Swanson and Semmens also registered 18 and 25 digs, respectively. Megan Tryon tallied a game-high 62 assists.

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.

2,000 AND COUNTING: With her 43 digs last weekend vs. Princeton and Penn, Megan Mushovic reached another milestone in her illustrious career, as she became the first Ivy League player to reach 2,000 career digs.

IVY LEADER BOARD: Cornell has several players making their mark on the conference leader board. Jordan Reader ranks fifth in assists per game (8.09), while Megan Mushovic is fifth overall in digs per game (4.79). The Big Red also has two players ranked in the top-10 for blocks, with Madeleine Przybyl sitting in sixth (0.84), slightly ahead of Juliana Rogers, who ranks ninth (0.79).

MISSING MISSE: Jessica Misse had not seen the court in two years due to a myriad of injuries, but she made her return to the court at the Binghamton Invitational on the weekend of Sept. 11-12. The senior middle blocker saw action in all three games that weekend and posted 12 kills and four blocks during the tournament. So far this season, Misse has seen action in 19 matches, registering 96 kills and just 38 errors on 252 attempts, for a team-best .230 kill percentage.

SAFE SERVING: The Big Red has done an outstanding job of keeping serving errors to a minimum, registering just 136 on the season (1.6 per set). At the same time, Big Red opponents have posted 168 serving errors (2.0 per set).

THE ART OF ZHENG: Cornell freshman setter Lucy Zheng saw significant action vs. Brown on Oct. 17, playing in all four sets and handing out a career-high 36 assists. The 36 assists is also the second-highest assist total for a Big Red player this season, second only to Jordan Reeder, who tallied 39 assists vs. Dartmouth on Oct. 10.

TRIPLE DIP: The Big Red had three players register double-digit digs 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.

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.

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 then 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: The matches vs. Brown and Yale conclude the 2009 season.