* Game notes vs. New Hampshire
GAME INFORMATION
Game #10: No. 17 Cornell at No. 19 New Hampshire
Date/Time: Monday, April 6 at 2 p.m.
Site: Memorial Field, Durham, N.H.
2009 Records: Cornell (5-4, 1-3 Ivy); New Hampshire (8-4, 2-2 America East)
Series Record: New Hampshire leads 5-2
Last Meeting: New Hampshire won 10-9, March 19, 2008 in Nashville, Tenn.
Live Stats: available at www.UNHWildcats.com
Live Video: not available for this game
HEAD COACH JENNY GRAAP '86
Cornell head coach Jenny Graap is in her 12th season at Cornell (114-67, .630) and 16th overall (135-111, .549) 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. NEW HAMPSHIRE: The Cornell women's lacrosse team will close out its toughest stretch of the season when it visits No. 19 New Hampshire on Monday, April 6 at 2 p.m. at Memorial Field. Live stats from the game will be available through New Hampshire's web site, or through a link at
www.CornellBigRed.com.
The Big Red has dropped four consecutive games, all against ranked teams. The latest defeat came at the hands of No. 15 Dartmouth on Saturday in Hanover, N.H. by a score of 12-8. Cornell held an 8-6 lead with 15 minutes to play, but the Big Green scored six unanswered goals to claim the victory and remain unbeaten in Ivy League play.
A young Cornell team will attempt to get back on the winning track as three of the team's top five scorers are freshmen or sophomores, including leading scorer
Jessi Steinberg (13 goals, nine assists) and second-leading scorer
Libby Johnson (13 goals, six assists). An experienced defense featuring seniors
Kelly Hansen and Deirdre lafferty and junior
Tissy O'Connor has done plenty to create turnovers (nearly 17 per game, including 9.6 forced miscues per contest).
The Wildcats. bring an 8-4 record into the game and have split their last six, including surrendering a four-goal halftime lead in a loss to then-No. 12 Boston University and a 16-15 overtime loss to Albany. Sarah Von Bargen (48 goals, seven assists) and Susie Piotrkowski (14 goals, 21 assists) headline an offense that averages better than 13 goals per game. UNH is outscoring foes by more than four goals per game, and has scored at least 15 goals six times, with a high of 21 in a 14-goal victory over Stony Brook.
SCOUTING NEW HAMPSHIRE: New Hampshire has an 8-4 record after an 11-8 victory at UMBC on Saturday and will be playing a pair of ranked teams in the next three days, with a Wednesday contest against No. 11 Vanderbilt also on tap. Sarah Von Bargen has been a dominant offensive force, ranking among the nation's leaders with 48 goals and 55 points, including four game-winners. She has added 21 draw controls and 17 ground balls. Susie Piotrkowski paces the team with 21 assists and is second with 35 points as one of eight double figure scorers. Allie Duclos leads the team with 52 draw wins, 35 ground balls and 19 caused turnovers, and has added six goals this season. Kate Gunts (7.54 GAA, .377 save percentage) and Nikki Hume (9.78 GAA, .345 save percentage) have split their playing time almost right down the middle. Head coach Sandy Bridgeman is in her 13th season at New Hampshire. The three-time America East Coach of the Year has compiled a 119-102 record at her alma mater.
THE SERIES: New Hampshire leads the all-time series 5-2, extending the lead with last year's 10-9 victory over the Big Red in a neutral site game played at Vanderbilt during Spring Break. Prior to that, the two teams hadn't squared off since the 1996 season when Cornell took a 15-7 victory over the Wildcats for the team's only win in four meetings in Ithaca. The Big Red has only travelled to Durham, N.H. for one game, a 10-9 loss in 1995.
LAST TIME VS. THE WILDCATS: New Hampshire's Sarah Von Bargen buried the game-winning goal with 30 seconds remaining to lift New Hampshire to a 10-9 non-conference victory over Cornell at the Vanderbilt Lacrosse Complex.
Noelle Dowd and
Katherine Simmons combined for half of Cornell's goals, registering three and two scores, respectively. The numbers were close throughout, with Cornell holding a lead in draw controls (13-8), while the Wildcats held a 9-6 edge in goalkeeper saves. Sarah Von Bargen led the way with two goals and an assist. Ashley Milley made nine saves and allowed nine goals.
FROSH ON TOP: Freshman
Jessi Steinberg is the team's leading scorer through nine games with 22 points on 13 goals and nine assists. If she finishes as the team's top scorer, Steinberg would be the first freshman to land atop the list since
Courtney Farrell had 40 points (28 goals, 12 assists) during the 2005 campaign.
STREAK OF THE WEEK: A season ago, Cornell was also on the wrong side of a long losing streak, dropping four consecutive games, all to ranked teams. How did the team respond? It went 6-2 down the stretch to finish tied for second in the Ancient Eight with its only losses to Syracuse and at Notre Dame.
OFFENSE UNTRACKED: Cornell will be attempting to connect offensively after scoring just 27 goals in the last four games combined. The Big Red had reached double figures in scoring in four of its first five games during the team's 5-0 start, but has averaged just 6.8 goals in its current 0-4 streak.
TOUGH STRETCH: The Big Red is playing its final game of a stretch of five straight games against ranked opponents (0-4 so far). In all, Cornell will play eight of its final 11 games against ranked squads.
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: The Big Red returns to action on Saturday, April 11 when it meets Ivy League foe Brown at 1 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field.
