GAME #7: Cornell vs. Columbia
GAME TIME: Saturday, Sept. 26, at 12:00 p.m.
GAME SITE: Marsha Dodson Field (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 12-1-0
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 4-3 (Haven, Conn.)
2009 RECORDS: Cornell (6-0); Columbia (3-2)
LIVE STATS: www.CornellBigRed.com
LIVE VIDEO: None 

 

THE MATCH-UP: The Cornell field hockey team looks to remain undefeated as it returns to Ithaca to play host to Columbia on Saturday, Sept. 26 on Marsha Dodson Field at noon. The Big Red, off to its best start in school history, will put its undefeated 6-0 record on the line against a scrappy 3-2 Lions' squad.

THE MATCHUP WITH COLUMBIA: The series with the Lions began in 1991, six seasons before Columbia officially joined the Ivy League. Cornell is 12-1 all-time against the Lions, with its lone loss coming during the 2004 campaign.

SCOUTING THE LIONS: Columbia defeated Fairfield, 5-2, on Wednesday evening to improve to 3-2 on the season. Christine Buszczak scored three goals against the Stags to jump into the team lead with seven points. Julia Garrison and Julie Hatchet have two goals apiece, while Caitlin Mullins has a team-best three assists. Christie OHara has played all but 35 minutes in cage for the Lions and has made 26 saves, while allowing just four goals for a .743 save percentage and a 2.19 goals-against average.

LAST TIME VS. COLUMBIA: The Big Red jumped out to an early three-goal lead and then held off a late comeback bid by Columbia to defeat the Lions, 4-3, at Johnson Field on the Yale University campus. The game was moved to New Haven due to flooding at Columbia's field hockey stadium. Columbia was led by Belen Martinez with two goals, Abbi Horn with a goal and an assist and Natalie Appleton with two assists. Katie Kirnan registered the game-winning goal, with Stephanie Brownstein assisting. In goal, Melanie Jue made four saves to get the win, while Columbia's Gena Miller stopped six in the loss. Cornell held the 14-9 advantage in shots and a 9-6 edge in penalty corners.

THE BIG RED'S LAST GAME: The Big Red got off to the best start in school history, improving to 6-0 on the season, as it defeated Lehigh, 1-0, on Sunday at the Ulrich Sports Complex in Bethlehem, Pa. Catie De Stio scored in the 44th minute for her second-straight game-winning goal. The Big Red's lone goal came when De Stio redirected a shot by Mattie Prodanovic into the left corner of the goal. Mel Jue made six saves, including three in the opening 10 minutes of the game to keep the Big Red in the game. Cornell outshot Lehigh, 20-7, and held the 8-2 advantage in penalty corners. Lehigh goalie Lilia Stefaniwsky made a career-high 11 saves and backs Taryn Hartzell and Lauren Cawley totaled three defensive saves for the Mountain Hawks.

THE HEAD COACH: Cornell head coach Donna Hornibrook is in her sixth season at Cornell (47-41, .534) ... Hornibrook became the sixth coach in Cornell field hockey history in January 2004 ... She has a 218-88-10 (.706) record as a head coach, including a 111-39-4 mark at Houghton and a 60-8-6 record at New Brunswick.

THAT'S A FIRST: The Big Red is off to a 6-0 start on the season, the best start in program history.

WHERE WE RANK: Senior goalie Mel Jue is off to a great start, ranking fourth in the nation in both save percentage (.857) and goals-against average (0.50). Catie De Stio ranks 21st in goals per game (1.0) and 25th in assists per game (0.67). As a team, Cornell ranks first in win percentage (1.000), sixth in GAA (0.83), 12th in scoring margin (2.1), 14th in save percentage (.783), 22nd in assists per game (2.0), 23rd in goals per game (3.0), and 24th in both scoring average (2.99) and points per game (8.0).

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: The Big Red has had two Ivy League Player of the Week selections on the young season, with Kelley Kantarian taking the honors on Sept. 8 and Catie De Stio winning on Sept. 22. Kantarian helped the Big Red get off to a 2-0 start to the season, registering seven points in victories over Davidson and Georgetown. She opened the season with a two-goal effort in the 3-1 victory over the Wildcats and followed that up with one goal and one assist in the 5-1 win against the Hoyas. She registered her three goals on just six shots. De Stio provided all of the Big Red's offense Cornell picked up a pair of wins over Penn and Lehigh. Against the Quakers, De Stio scored all three goals, on just five total shots, including the game-winner, just 22 seconds into overtime to give Cornell the 3-2 victory. Against the Mountain Hawks, she led the Big Red to a 1-0 win with the lone goal of the game.

HATS OFF: After going three seasons without seeing a Cornell player score three goals in a single game, the Big Red has had four players register hat tricks since the start of the 2008 season – Catie De Stio (Penn, Sept. 18, 2009), Abbi Horn (Georgetown, Sept. 21, 2008), Kelley Kantarian (Colgate, Oct. 9, 2008) and Catie De Stio (Bryant, Oct. 11, 2008). The three hat tricks during the 2008 season was the most by the Big Red since having four during the 1995 season. That year, Cari Hills scored three goals vs. Colgate and four goals against Holy Cross, while Emily Robb tallied three against both Lehigh and Brown. Until the 2008 season, Cornell had never had three different players register hat tricks in the same season.

IVY OPENERS: Cornell opened its 31st season of play in the Ivy League with a thrilling 3-2 overtime victory against Penn on Sept. 19. The Big Red is 13-15-3 all-time in conference season openers, thanks mostly to a 10-3 record since 1997. Cornell has played only four of the seven Ivy League teams in its season openers through the years. Its best records in Ivy openers are against Yale (1-0) and Columbia (6-1). The Big Red has played Princeton more than any other team in conference openers (14), posting a 3-9-2 record, but the two teams have not met in the season opener since 1999. Cornell has met Penn nine times in its conference opener, posting a 3-5-1 record against the Quakers. All but two of those games came prior to the 1989 season, with the 2002, 2008 and 2009 meetings providing the three Big Red victories.

CIRCLE OF TRUST: So far this season, the Big Red defensive unit has allowed just 2.16 penalty corners per game, the best school average since the stat began to be recorded in 1998. Since taking over the program, Coach Hornibrook's teams have allowed just 6.16 penalty corners per game. That is significantly down from the 8.4 average prior to her arrival.

MOVING ON UP: With her hot start to the season, junior Catie De Stio has jumped into Cornell's top-10 in career goals (7th – 20), career points (7th – 53) and career assists (t-9th – 13). Likewise, senior Natalie Appleton's next assist will rank her 10th all-time on the career list, while junior Kate Thompson needs four more assists and 17 points to move into the top-10.

KNOCK THREE TIMES: When the Big Red fell to Syracuse during the 2006 season, 4-3, in overtime, it marked the only time in Coach Hornibrook's career with Cornell that the team scored three goals and lost the contest. Under Coach Hornibrook, the Big Red improved to 29-1 in games in which it scores at least three goals after a 3-2 victory over Penn on Sept.19, 2009.

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE (A NEW) HOME: The Big Red is 8-1 all-time on the newly constructed Marsha Dodson Field. Collectively, the team has outscored its opponents by an impressive margin of 29-13 and has taken more than three times as many shots (203-61) as its opponents. The defense is equally solid in the circle, allowing just 38 penalty corners (4.2 per game).

CLOSE CALLS: Cornell's 1-0 victory over Lehigh on Sept. 19 continued the Big Red's trend of playing in one-goal games. Since the start of the 2006 season, the Big Red has lost 20 games, with 14 of those coming by a single goal, including seven in overtime. During that same span, Cornell has won 15 one-goal games.

A VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: The Big Red earned seven votes in Sept. 15 NFHCA Division I National Coaches Poll. The seven votes are the most earned by Cornell during Coach Hornibrook's tenure, matching the amount earned by the Big Red in the Oct. 27, 2008 poll.

COMING AT YOU FROM ALL SIDES: Since taking over the Cornell program in 2004, Coach Hornibrook has had a dozen or more players register at least one point in four-of-five seasons, with a high of 14 in 2005. Just six games into the 2009 season, the Big Red already has 11 different players in the scoring column.

FAST STARTS: Scoring first has been a big part of the Big Red's success in recent years. Since Coach Hornibrook has taken over the program, Cornell has posted an impressive 43-8 record in games in which they have scored first. Conversely, the team has won only four games in which they have had to come back from an early deficit to win. The first was Coach Hornibrook's very first victory with the team, a 6-3 win over Lehigh in 2004, with the latest coming on Sept. 12, 2009 as Cornell defeated Lock Haven, 2-1, in overtime.

WINS 3, SAVES 1: Senior goalkeeper Mel Jue earned three wins in the first four games of the season, despite the fact that she was called on to make just one save. Alex Botte, however, has had to work much harder for her win during that stretch, posting six saves on the season.

A GAME FOR THE AGES: In its game vs. Siena, the Big Red took 43 shots, forcing the Saints goalie to make 22 saves, while limiting the visitors to just one shot. The last time Cornell took that many shots in a game was when the Big Red took 49 vs. Yale on Oct. 3, 1987. The last time an opposing goalie made more than 22 saves also came against Siena, as the Saints' goalie stopped 25 shots on Sept. 16, 1994. The last opponent to only take one shot against Cornell was C.W. Post on Sept. 29, 1982.

FIRST ACTION: Several rookies saw their first collegiate action during the opening weekend of play, as Genevieve Collins, Kat DiPastina, Paige Mollineaux and Alex Robson all saw playing time. Collins made a pair of starts vs. Davidson and Georgetown, while DiPastina scored against the Wildcats. In the third game of the season vs. Seina, Cornell's other three rookies, Molly Casey, Lauren Neal and Katie Laventure, all saw action.

BOMBARDING BOTTE: Senior Mel Jue got the start in Cornell's first game of the season against Davidson but after not facing a shot on goal in the first half of play, gave way to sophomore Alex Botte following the intermission. Botte went on to make four saves and allow one goal in the final 35 minutes of action.

FIRST WIN: Alex Botte followed up her stellar play vs. Davidson by getting her first collegiate win as she made three saves and allowed one goal vs. Georgetown.

FOR OPENERS: With its victory over Davidson on Sept. 5, the Big Red improved to 22-12-4 (.636) all-time in season-openers … The loss to No. 19 Albany during the 2008 season was Coach Hornibrook's only defeat in season-openers during her time with Cornell (5-1).

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN: Seniors Natalie Appleton, Kelley Kantarian and Katie Kirnan have been named captains for the 2009 season.

RECAPPING 2008: The Big Red completed the 2008 season with an 11-5 record overall and 6-1 mark in the conference to finish in second place in the league rankings for the third straight year. Cornell also posted a winning conference record for the fourth straight year, marking the first time in program history that the Big Red has had four straight winning seasons in Ivy play. The team set the school mark for overall victories (11) and conference victories (6) in a season as well as setting the school record for goals (45), assists (38) and points (128) in a season.

UP NEXT: The Big Red is back in action next weekend as it travels to New Haven, Conn., to take on Ivy League foe Yale on Saturday, Oct. 3 at noon.