* Game notes vs. Syracuse
* Live video (Syracuse All-Access subscription required)
* Live stats

GAME INFORMATION
Game #12: No.17 Cornell at No. 8 Syracuse
Date/Time: Wednesday, April 15 at 7 p.m.
Site: The Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
2009 Records: Cornell (7-4, 2-3 Ivy); Syracuse (11-3, 5-1 Big East)
Series Record: Syracuse leads 7-5
Last Meeting: Syracuse won 19-7, April 22, 2008 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Live Stats: available at www.SUathletics.com
Live Video: available at www.SUathletics.com

HEAD COACH JENNY GRAAP '86
Cornell head coach Jenny Graap is in her 12th season at Cornell (116-67, .634) and 16th overall (137-111, .552) as a head coach ... directed the Big Red to the 2002 Final Four, earning IWLCA National Coach of the Year and Inside Lacrosse magazine's North Coach of the Year ... Inside Lacrosse ad IWLCA Northeast regional coach of the Year in 2006 after leading Cornell to share of first Ivy League title ... Graap is the fifth head women's lacrosse coach at Cornell and has posted the second-highest win total and has a school-record winning percentage.

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THE STORY LINE VS. SYRACUSE: The Big Red women's lacrosse team will attempt to collect a signature win and earn a victory in the Carrier Dome for the first time in program history when it faces the high-powered Syracuse Orange on Wednesday, April 15 at 7 p.m. Live video of the game is available through Syracuse's web site (www.suathletics.com), while live stats will also be provided for the game through a link at www.CornellBigRed.com.

With the close of the regular season around the corner and the NCAA tournament not far into the future, Cornell will have one of its last opportunities to draw the attention of the selection committee when it meets an Orange team that advanced to the national semifinals a season ago. Syracuse has won four of its last five games and has lost only to Virginia, Northwestern and Georgetown (in four overtimes) in 2009, all teams currently in the top 10. 

The two Central New York rivals have met on the lacrosse field every year since 1998, including in both the regular season and NCAA tournament in 2002. The Orange lead the series 7-5 thanks to wins in each of the last two contests by a combined score of 41-16. Cornell is 2-4 against nationally ranked teams this season with both victories coming away from home. 

SCOUTING SYRACUSE: The Orange are again one of the nation's elite teams, using a powerful offense featuring four players with at least 36 points in its 10-3 start. Leading the way is All-Americans Katie Rowan (38 goals, 33 assists) and Christina Dove (41 goals, 15 assists), while both Halley Quillinan (40 goals, four assists) and Megan Mosenson (24 goals, 12 assists) are also among the top scorers in the Big East. SU has battered its foes by jumping out quickly, outscoring opponents by more than four goals per game by halftime, while dominating the draw, winning 58 percent of the restarts. Bridget Looney (14 goals, three assists) leads the team in caused turnover (22) and ranks among the leaders in both draw controls (28) and ground balls (22). Goalkeeper Liz Hogan has posted a 9.27 goals against average and a .458 save percentage while pacing the squad in ground balls (32). Second-year head coach Gary Gait, one of the all-time greats in lacrosse history as a player at Syracuse, has directed the team to a 28-6 mark since taking over the program, including a Final Four trip in 2008. 

THE SERIES: Syracuse leads the all-time series 7-5, including winning the last two contests. Syracuse won last year's contest 19-7 in Ithaca behind five goals and two assists by Christina Dove and three goals and three assists by Katie Rowan. Cornell will be looking for its first-ever win in the series in Syracuse, as the Orange have won all five previous meetings in the Carrier Dome.

LAST TIME VS. THE ORANGE: The high-powered Syracuse offense proved to be too much for No. 15 Cornell as the fifth-ranked Orange topped the Big Red 19-7 at Schoellkopf Field on April 22, 2008. Noelle Dowd and Courtney Farrell each had two goals and an assist to lead the offense, while Charlotte Schmidlapp had three draws and two caused turnovers and Amanda Linnertz won three ground balls in their final appearances on Schoellkopf. Goalkeeper Kristen Reese made 10 saves and allowed 10 goals in 41:51. Reese made seven big stops in the second half to prevent further damage, including three point-blank stops on one possession. Syracuse, which entered the contest averaging 20 goals per game, got five goals and two assists from Christina Dove, while Tewaaraton Trophy candidate Katie Rowan had three goals and three assists.

HOT GOALKEEPER: Junior Kristen Reese has been exceptional over the last two games, posting a 6.00 goals against average and a .647 save percentage in helping Cornell to wins over No. 19 New Hampshire and Ivy foe Brown. Reese has been particularly outstanding the second half of those contests, making 15 saves and allowing just six goals, good for a .714 save percentage in the two narrow victories. For her efforts, Reese was named the national defensive player of the week by womenslacrosse.com.

FREE POSITION?: The Big Red has had great success from the eight-meter line this season, going 29-of-59 on free-position shots (49 percent) and have done a great job defensively limiting damage at the same time. Opponents have scored on just 18-of-50 attempts (36 percent). The Big Red held No. 19 New Hampshire without a goal on five free-position attempts in the 5-3 victory on April 6.

KEEPING THE BALL ROLLING: Cornell needs to win two of its final five to guarantee the Big Red its ninth winning record in 12 seasons under head coach Jenny Graap. Priot to her arrival, Cornell lacrosse had just 11 winning seasons in the first 26 years of the program.

WINNING IVY SEASON: Cornell needs to win its final two Ancient Eight contests to close out the campaign with a winning conference record. The Big Red has finished above .500 in league play seven times in the last nine years after never posting more than three conference victories prior to head coach Jenny Graap taking over in 1998.

REESE NAMED IVY LEAGUE DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK (MARCH 9): Reese was outstanding in the Big Red's 13-10 win at Hofstra, collecting a career-high 14 saves to stone a Pride offense averaging nearly 14 goals per outing. Reese made saves on Hofstra's first three shots to set the tone and made seven saves in each half to help the Big Red remain unbeaten. 

LAFFERTY NAMED IVY LEAGUE DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK (MARCH 2): Senior co-captain Deirdre Lafferty spearheaded a defense that surrendered a 6.47 goals against average in opening the season a perfect 2-0, earning her first Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week honors in the process. Lafferty posted seven caused turnovers and won four ground balls while helping Cornell clear the ball successfully 87 percent of the time in wins over defending Patriot League champion Colgate and unbeaten Rutgers (27-of-31). 

McKIE EARNS SPOT ON HAUDENASAUNEE WORLD CUP TEAM: Freshman Mia McKie has earned a position on the Haudenasaunee Nation's team that will compete in the FIL Women's World Cup in Prague from June 17-27. McKie was a five-year varsity letter winner and three-year captain at Niagara-Wheatfield HS and earned the 2007 Tewaaraton Foundation Award for the Outstanding Native High School Player.

LAFFERTY, WIEGAND NAMED TEAM CAPTAINS: Seniors Deirdre Lafferty and Jessica Wiegand have been elected captains of the women's lacrosse team for the 2009 season. The duo will provide senior leadership to a young team that features 13 freshmen and 19 total underclassmen.

ANNUAL DODGEBALL TOURNAMENT HELPS FIGHT AGAINST MS: On December 7, 2008, the Cornell women's lacrosse team hosted the Fourth Annual Dodgeball Tournament to benefit Multiple Sclerosis. The event was held in Cornell's indoor turf facility, the Ramin Room, and was a fun stress-reliever during fall semester study days. The tournament was a great success again this year, with 41 teams participating, representing many of the varsity athletic programs.

IVY LEAGUE TO ADD POSTSEASON TOURNAMENT IN 2010: Ivy League Executive Director Jeff Orleans announced in January that the Ivy League will begin four-team tournaments in spring 2010 to determine the Ivy League's automatic qualifying institutions to the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Lacrosse Championships. The winners of the Ivy League championship will continue to be determined by results of the League's round-robin competitions. Each tournament will include the top four teams in Ivy League regular season round-robin competition and will be hosted by the round-robin winner. The men's tournament will be the season's last weekend (Friday-Sunday, May 7-9, 2010) and the women's tournament will be the preceding weekend (April 30-May 2).

NEXT UP: Cornell visits Yale (April 18 at 1 p.m.) before returning home for the final three games of the regular season, starting with Vanderbilt on April 21 at 2:30 p.m.