GAME INFORMATION
GAME #15: Cornell at Dartmouth
DATE: Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009
TIME: 6:30 p.m.
SITE: Hanover, N.H. - Burnham Field (1,600)
2009 RECORDS: Cornell - 1-12-1 (0-6 Ivy League); Dartmouth - 9-7 (3-3 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Dartmouth leads, 17-7-5
LAST MEETING: Dartmouth won, 3-2 (ot) on Nov. 8, 2008, in Ithaca, N.Y.
LIVE STATS: dartmouthsports.com
LIVE VIDEO: dartmouthsports.com

The 2009 season comes to a close for the Cornell women's soccer team on Saturday when the Big Red travels to Dartmouth for a 6:30 p.m. contest against the Big Green. Cornell will be seeking to close out the year with its first Ivy League win of the year and its first win against the Big Green since 1995.

HEAD COACH DANIELLE LAROCHE
Danielle LaRoche is in her third season directing the Cornell women's soccer program. The fourth coach in Cornell women's soccer history, LaRoche picked up her first collegiate head coaching victory on Sept. 7, 2007, when the Big Red knocked off Hartford, 1-0, in double overtime in Ithaca, N.Y. She has a career coaching mark of 7-36-2. Prior to her arrival at Cornell, LaRoche had stops as an assistant coach at George Mason, Binghamton and Howard. A 1995 graduate of Maryland, LaRoche played two seasons for the Terrapins under April Heinrichs, who would later go on to serve as the head coach of the U.S. Women's National Team. LaRoche is assisted by Elke Reisdorph, in her first season with the Big Red.

ABOUT THE BIG RED
In its last time out, the Big Red fell to 0-6 in the Ivy League with its fifth one-goal loss of the league season, dropping a 1-0 contest to Princeton on Saturday in Princeton, N.J. Following a harsh red card to senior Kala Neilson in the 26th minute, the under-manned Big Red battled with the Tigers through a scoreless regulation and through nearly all of two overtime periods before the Tigers scored the game-winning goal with 24 seconds remaining in the match. Sophomore goalkeeper Megan Bartlett picked up eight saves in the match. For the season, Sidra Bonner leads the Big Red with six points on three goals, while both Maneesha Chitanvis and Hannah Labadie have a pair of goals. Kelly Murphy and Bartlett have split time in goal, with Murphy posting a 1.49 goals-against average anda  .698 save percentage and Bartlett posting a 1.92 GAA and a .694 save percentage.

ABOUT DARTMOUTH
Dartmouth enters the weekend on a bit of a hot streak, claiming victory in three of its last four matches. The Big Green is coming off a 2-1 win at Bryant, but dropped its last league game, 1-0, to Harvard. Aly O'Dea leads the Big Green offense with 19 points on nine goals and one assist, though eight player have accounted for the 22 goals scored on the year. Colleen Hogan has played most of the time in net, posting a 1.26 goals-against average and a .710 save percentage.

THE SERIES WITH DARTMOUTH
The Big Green leads the all-time series, 17-7-5, and has claimed wins in each of the last four games and 12 of the last 13. Cornell's last win in the series came on Oct. 22, 1995, a 3-1 victory in Ithaca.

USING YOUR HEAD
Sophomore Sidra Bonner has done just that in scoring each of her three goals this season. The team leader in that category, Bonner has scored all three of her goals in heading home a corner kick. Bonner entered the season with just one point on an assist last season and has added six points this year.

HEARTBREAKERS
How heart-wrenching has been the Big Red's season in 2009? Of Cornell's 12 losses, seven have come by one goal, including twice in overtime, with another four by two goals. When Cornell dropped 12 games a year ago, it fell by one goal four times and by two goals three times, but losing by three goals or more on five different occasions.

TIGHTENING UP
Another area of improvement this season for the Big Red is in its defense. With one games yet to play this year, Cornell has allowed 24 goals, well off last year's total of 36 goals against. Additionally, Cornell has allowed far fewer shots for its opponent this year (325 in 2008, 181 so far in 2009). The numbers in league play are even more telling, as last season, the Big Red allowed 22 goals in Ivy League games. This year, with just the Dartmouth game left, that total stands at nine goals allowed.

BARTLETT'S BACK
Sophomore goalkeeper Megan Bartlett made her first appearance since Sept. 6 against Niagara when she got the start on Oct. 10 against Harvard. Bartlett picked up a season-best six saves in the loss to the Crimson, and made a stellar diving reaction save on a point-blank shot by Harvard's Katherine Sheeleigh, the league's fifth-leading scorer. She since has upped her season high in saves, stopping eight shots against Princeton on Oct. 31.

IVY OPENERS
Cornell dropped its Ivy League opener on Sept. 26 against Columbia, 1-0. The Big Red is now 15-11-1 all-time in conference openers.

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
Freshman Maneesha Chitanvis earned Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors on Sept. 21 after her play during the week of Sept. 14-20. Chitanvis scored her first career goal on Sept. 16 against Colgate in a 2-0 victory, then earned a spot on the George Mason Tournament All-Tournament Team with her play against William & Mary and the host Patrots.

EVEN-STEVEN
Cornell's win against Colgate on Sept. 16 knotted the all-time series against the Raiders, 14-14-3. The win was also the first for head coach Danielle LaRoche over the Central New York rivals.

A LOOK TO THE FUTURE
A quick glance at the scoring column for the Big Red this season shows a reason to be optimistic about this season the the future. Of the seven players who have recorded a point this year, six are either a freshman or a sophomore.

INTO THE SCORING COLUMN
Sophomore Sidra Bonner scored her first career goal in the Big Red's loss to Niagara on Sept. 6, adding to the one assist she recorded last season. Classmate Samantha Wright tallied an assist on Bonner's goal for her first career point.

NO GOALS
When Cornell opened with a scoreless tie against Binghamton on Sept. 4, it marked the first time Cornell had posted a shutout in the season opener since a 2-0 win over St. Bonaventure in 2005. The scoreless tie to begin the season was the first since the 2004 season when Cornell drew with Stony Brook.

FOR STARTERS
Cornell has had great success in the 27 season openers in the program's history, picking up a 16-7-4 mark in the first game of the season. The Big Red is 1-1-1 in season openers under Danielle LaRoche, losing the first game of her tenure with the Big Red at Hofstra in 2007, but scoring a win over Oakland last year in Rochester, N.Y., and tying this year's opener against Binghamton.

CLIMBING THE CHARTS
Junior Lena Russomagno is quietly approaching the all-time top 10 in several offensive categories. Russomagno entered the season with eight goals and seven assists for 23 points. With two points on the year, she is now six goals, four assists and 15 points shy of reaching the top 10 in each of those categories. Russomagno is capable of posting those types of numbers, as she tallied six goals as a freshman and five assists last season, with the five assists coming just shy of tying the all-time mark in a single season.

NATIONAL APPEAL
When Danielle LaRoche explains the recruiting efforts to bring together the 2009 team as searching far and wide, she's not kidding. The Big Red has 16 states and one Canadian province represented on the 2009 roster, with no state having more than three players who call that location home. California and Virginia both have three players on the Cornell roster, while Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey and Ohio each have two representatives. Other states claiming an interest in the Big Red roster are Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York and Texas.

UP NEXT
Cornell's season ends with Saturday's game against Dartmouth.