MATCH INFORMATION
MATCH #22: Cornell vs. Princeton
MATCH TIME: Friday, Nov. 6, 2009; 7:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Newman Arena (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Princeton leads, 40-17
LAST MEETING: Princeton won 3-1, on Oct. 24, 2009
2009 RECORDS: Cornell: 6-15 (3-7 Ivy); Princeton: 7-13 (5-4 Ivy)
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.internetconsult.com/cornell/wvball/  
LIVE VIDEO: http://www.cornellbigred.com/showcase/#liveevents  

MATCH #23: Cornell vs. Penn
MATCH TIME: Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009; 4:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Newman Arena (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Penn leads, 32-23
LAST MEETING: Penn won 3-0, on Oct. 23, 2009
2009 RECORDS: Cornell: 6-15 (3-7 Ivy)*; Penn: 18-4 (9-0 Ivy)*
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.internetconsult.com/cornell/wvball/   
LIVE VIDEO: http://www.cornellbigred.com/showcase/#liveevents  

* Records prior to Friday, Nov. 6 



MATCH NOTES
THE MATCHUP: The Big Red returns to Ithaca this weekend and welcomes Princeton and Penn to Newman Arena. The game with the Tigers is slated for Friday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m., while the game with the Quakers will take place on Saturday, Nov. 7 at 4:00 p.m.

SCOUTING PRINCETON: The Tigers are 7-13 on the season, and had a four-game winning streak snapped last weekend vs. Yale, as it fell to 5-4 in the Ivy League. The attack is led by Sheena Donohue with 3.62 kills per set, while Lydia Rudnick is chipping in 3.33 kills per set. Setter Molly Bagshaw ranks fourth in the conference with 9.57 assists per set, while Donohue leads the teams in digs with 4.06 per set.

THE SERIES VS. THE TIGERS: Like its series with Penn, Cornell's series with Princeton also began in the 1974 season, a 2-0 Big Red victory. The Tigers have dominated the series, owning a 40-17 record against Cornell, and have won the last five meetings.

LAST TIME VS. PRINCETON: Cornell fell to Princeton, 3-1, on Oct. 24, 2009, in Princeton, N.J. After losing the first set, 25-14, the Big Red stormed back to win the second set, 29-27, but dropped the final two sets, 25-11 and 25-21. Freshman Deveney Pula led Cornell with 15 kills and just six errors on 46 attempts (.196), to go along with 12 digs and one service ace. Meagan Tatum also registered double-digit kills with 10 and just two errors on 34 attempts (.235), while Kelly Hansen chipped in seven kills. Jordan Reeder tallied 29 assists and Megan Mushovic posted 17 digs. Princeton was led by Sheena Donohue's 21 kills, while Lydia Rudnick (17), Cathryn Quinn (16) and Taylor Carroll (14) all posted double-digit kills as well. Michaela Venuti tallied 59 assists and Rudnick posted a game-high 18 digs.

SCOUTING PENN: The Quakers are riding a nine-game winning streak and sit atop the Ivy League standing with a 18-4 record overall and a mark of 9-0 in the conference. Penn is led by a trio of hitters that average more than three kills per set – Elizabeth Semmens (3.75), Lauren Martin (3.63) and Julia Swanson (3.02). Running the offense is setter Megan Tryan, who ranks first in the Ivy League with 11.52 assists per game, while libero Madison Wojciechowski is also first in the league with 5.42 digs per set.

THE SERIES VS. THE QUAKERS: Cornell and Penn first met in 1974, a 2-0 Big Red victory. The Quakers went on to dominate the series for the rest of the 1970s and '80s, accounting for its 32-23 all-time lead, but since 1990 the series has been much closer, with Penn holding the slim, 16-12 advantage.

LAST TIME VS. PENN: The Big Red fell to Penn, the top team in the Ivy League, 3-0, on Oct. 23, 2009, at the Palestra in Philadelphia, Pa. The Big Red fell in straight sets, 25-16, 25-16 and 25-19. Cornell was led by Alessa Cekauskas with six kills on 31 attempts, while Deveny Pula and Jessica Misse added five kills apiece. Jordan Reeder ran the offense with 19 assists. Defensively, Megan Mushovic had 15 digs, while Pula chipped in 11 and Kelly Hansen led the team with six block assists. Penn was led by Elizabeth Semmens' 11 kills, while Julia Swanson tallied nine. Megan Tryon registered 37 assists, while Madison Wojciechowski had a game-high 19 digs.

CORNELL'S LAST GAME: Harvard completed the season sweep of Cornell, defeating the Big Red, 3-0, on Nov. 1 in Cambridge, Mass. The Crimson swept all three sets, 25-21, 25-17 and 25-18. Deveney Pula led the Big Red with eight kills, while Megan Tatum hit an impressive .500 with six kills and no errors on 12 attempts. Alessa Cekauskas also chipped in five kills on the day. Lucy Zheng and Jordan Reeder split the setting duties, with Zheng tallying 16 assists and Reeder adding 11. Defensively, Megan Mushovic posted a team-high 17 digs, while Pula chipped in 11. Harvard (10-11, 6-4 Ivy) was led by Michelle Comrie's 10 kills. Lily Durwood handed out 30 assists and Christine Wu posted 17 digs.

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.

SENIOR DAZE: This weekend marks the final home contests for seniors Jessica Misse, Megan Mushovic and Juliana Rogers.

IVY LEADER BOARD: Cornell has several players making their mark on the conference leader board. Jordan Reader ranks fifth in assists per game (7.75), while Megan Mushovic is sixth overall in digs per game (4.73). The Big Red also has two players ranked in the top-10 for blocks, with Madeleine Przybyl sitting in fifth (0.90), slightly ahead of Juliana Rogers, who ranks ninth (0.76).

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 17 matches, registering 84 kills and just 34 errors on 219 attempts, for a team-best .228 kill percentage.

SAFE SERVING: The Big Red has done an outstanding job of keeping serving errors to a minimum, registering just 128 on the season (1.7 per set). At the same time, Big Red opponents have posted 159 serving errors (2.2 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 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 wraps up the season next weekend, as it travels to Brown on Friday, Nov. 13 at 5 p.m., and Yale on Saturday, Nov. 14 at 4 p.m.