* Game notes vs. Yale
* Live stats
* Live audio (free at www.wybc.com)
GAME INFORMATION
Game #13: No.17 Cornell at Yale
Date/Time: Saturday, April 18 at 1 p.m.
Site: Reese Stadium, New Haven, Conn.
2009 Records: Cornell (7-5, 2-3 Ivy); Yale (5-8, 1-4 Ivy)
Series Record: Yale leads 19-11
Last Meeting: Cornell won 8-6, April 19, 2008 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Live Stats: available at www.YaleBulldogs.com
Live Audio: available at www.YaleBulldogs.com
HEAD COACH JENNY GRAAP '86
Cornell head coach Jenny Graap is in her 12th season at Cornell (116-68, .630) and 16th overall (137-112, .550) 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.
THE STORY LINE VS. YALE: The Cornell women's lacrosse team will close out its road portion of the 2009 schedule when it visits Yale on Saturday, April 15 at 1 p.m. at Reese Stadium. Live audio from the game, as well as live stats, will be available through Yale's web site (www.yalebulldogs.com) and will also be provided for the game through a link at www.CornellBigRed.com.
The Big Red put a scare into No. 8 Syracuse on Wednesday night in the Carrier Dome, rallying from a seven-goal deficit before succumbing to the powerful Orange 11-8. Sophomore
Libby Johnson had two goals and an assist, freshman
Shannon McHugh had a pair of scores and the Cornell defense held SU's leading scorers Katie Rowan, Halley Quillinan and Christina Dove to a combined three goals, though Rowan assisted on six of the Orange's scores. Cornell had multiple chances in the second half as it cut Syracuse's lead to 10-8 with under four minutes to play, but could not get all the way back against last year's NCAA semifinalist.
Cornell and Yale will be meeting for the 31st consecutive season with the Bulldogs holding a 19-11 edge in the series. The Big Red is 6-5 in the last 11 contests, but will be attempting to pick up its first road win in the series since 2001. Cornell will also need the win to move forward on finishing the season with a winning record overall and in Ivy play for the eighth time in the last 10 seasons.
SCOUTING YALE: Perennial Ivy League contender Yale enters the game with a 5-8 record (1-4 Ivy), but has won three of its last four contests entering the game with the Big Red. The large majority of its offense has come from three players, as Jenn Warden (35 goals, six assists), Jenna Block (11 goals, 22 assists) and Jessica Sturgill (21 goals, five assists) have combined for 100 of the squad's 149 points. Warden has chipped in with a team-leading 30 ground balls, 25 caused turnovers and 24 draw controls. In goal, Whitney Quackenbush has started 12 of the team's 13 games and has posted a 9.30 goals against average and a .475 save percentage. First-year head coach Anne Phillips posted a 93-24 record at Franklin & Marshall, leading the program to the 2007 Division III title and earning national coach of the year honors.
THE SERIES: Yale holds a 19-11 edge in the series that dates back to the origination of Ivy League women's lacrosse in 1980. Cornell is 6-5 in the last 11 meetings between the teams, including an 8-6 victory over then-No. 14 Yale last season in Ithaca. The Bulldogs have a comfortable 11-4 edge in games played in New Haven, Conn., with the Big Red last winning on the road back in 2001, an 11-7 victory.
LAST TIME VS. THE BULLDOGS: On Senior Day,
Courtney Farrell etched her name in the Cornell record books and the Big Red won a key Ivy League contest with an 8-6 victory over No. 14 Yale at Schoellkopf Field on April 19, 2008. Farrell scored a pair of goals to end her afternoon with 206 career points, two more than former national player of the year finalist
Jaimee Reynolds '02. Her game-tying score just 1:24 into the second half was the record breaker. The defense was exceptionally strong in front of
Kristen Reese, who stopped eight shots in improving to 4-1 on the year. Reese added an interception and a ground ball in the victory.
KEEPING THE BALL ROLLING: Cornell needs to win two of its final four games to guarantee the Big Red its ninth winning record in 12 seasons under head coach
Jenny Graap. Prior 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.
RECORD CATCHERS: Junior
Tissy O'Connor and senior
Deirdre Lafferty have outside chances of establishing Cornell career records over the final four games of the regular season. O'Connor enters Saturday's game at Yale with 32 draw controls, 11 behind single-season leader
Jaimee Reynolds in 2000. Lafferty has caused 21 turnovers on the year and needs 12 to match
Erica Holveck's collection of 33 in 2003.
REESE EARNS DIVISION I DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK (APRIL 14): Kristen Reese was named the Division I Defense Player of the Week by womenslacrosse.com today after leading the Big Red to victories over No. 19 New Hampshire and Brown. Reese posted a 6.00 goals against average, a .647 save percentage and chipped in seven ground balls and three caused turnovers. She ended the week with 22 saves and just 12 goals allowed. Reese was a rock in goal in a 5-3 win at No. 19 New Hampshire, making 13 saves and allowing just three goals while winning four ground balls and causing a pair of turnovers in the finest game of her collegiate career. She responded by making all nine of her saves in the decisive second half of a 12-9 Ancient Eight victory over Brown.
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 returns home for the final three games of the regular season, starting with Vanderbilt on April 21 at 2:30 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field.
