GAME INFORMATION
GAME #12: Cornell vs. Yale
DATE: Saturday, Oct. 6, 2010
TIME: 4:00 p.m.
SITE: Ithaca, N.Y. - Berman Field
2010 RECORDS: Cornell - 5-6 (0-3 Ivy League); Yale - 5-6-1 (1-2 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 15-14
LAST MEETING: Yale won, 2-1, on Oct. 17, 2009, in New Haven, Conn.
LIVE STATS: http://www.sidearmstats.com/cornell/wsoc

The Cornell women's soccer team returns home after playing its last two contests away from home, taking on Yale in a 4 p.m. contest on Saturday afternoon at Berman Field in Ithaca. The Big Red is in search of its first Ivy League victory of the year and will look to do so against a Bulldog team that has won two straight and three of four entering the weekend.

HEAD COACH DANIELLE LAROCHE
Now in her fourth season directing the Big Red women's soccer program, Danielle LaRoche has assembled a team that is ready to compete among the Ivy League's elite programs. The fourth coach in Cornell history, she holds a career coaching mark of 12-43-2. She picked up her first collegiate head coaching victory on Sept. 7, 2007, when Cornell defeated Hartford, 1-0, in double overtime, and notched career victory number 10 with a 3-1 win at Binghamton on Sept. 22, 2010. LaRoche's career also includes 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 second season, and Keith Comfort, in his first year with the Big Red.

ABOUT THE BIG RED
The Big Red slipped to 0-3 in the Ivy League with a 2-0 defeat at Harvard on Oct. 9 in its last time out. Cornell allowed two goals seven and a half minutes apart, the only scoring of the match, to fall to 5-6 on the season. Kelly Murphy and Megan Bartlett split time in goal in the match, with Murphy making one save in the first half and Barlett stopping all four shots she saw after halftime. Cornell is led offensively by Brook Chang, who has a team-best four goals and nine points, while Maneesha Chitanvis has three goals and two assists for eight points. Xandra Hompe and Rachel Nichols share the team lead in assists with four apiece. In goal, Murphy and Bartlett have split time evenly this year, with Murphy posting a 0.94 goals-against average and a .800 save percentage, while Bartlett has a 1.64 goals-against average and a .780 save percentage.

ABOUT YALE
The Bulldogs enter the weekend on a two-game winning streak, owning victories over St. Peter's and Dartmouth over that span. Yale's offense has scored 15 goals on the year, with Becky Brown owning four of those and five others posting a pair of goals. Brown leads the offense with 11 points, with Enma Mullo and Kristen Forster both tallying seven points on two goals and three assists. In goal, Ayana Sumiyasu has played most of the time for Yale, posting a 1.31 goals-against average and a .811 save percentage with two shutouts.

THE SERIES WITH YALE
Cornell holds a slim lead over the Bulldogs, 15-14, though Yale has claimed each of the last three meetings between the two programs. Cornell owned the early part of the series, winning seven of the first eight and 13 of the first 15 contests. The Big Red's last win over the Bulldogs came in 2006, a 3-1 victory in Ithaca.

UPS AND DOWNS
Cornell's women's soccer team would like to continue its roller coaster, for this week at least. Over the past month, the Big Red has alternated wins and losses, going 3-3 over that span. In five of those six games, the losing team has been held scoreless. With Cornell's last contest being a 2-0 loss at Harvard last Saturday, the Big Red would like to turn the tables and pick up a shutout against Yale to keep the string alive for another week.

FIVE ALIVE
Cornell's five wins this season are the most for the Big Red since Cornell posted a 7-7-1 mark in 2005. In fact, the Big Red has posted just 10 wins in the four previous seasons combined.

MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
Cornell's defensive numbers over the last four years are a strong indicator of the progress made by the program under head coach Danielle LaRoche. The Big Red's goals-against average has gone down substantially over that period, from a mark of 2.32 in 2008 to its current level of 1.27 this season. Similarly, the Big Red's team save percentage was as low as .651 in 2007, but is just shy of the 80-percent level (.794) this season. Additionally, Cornell's goalkeepers have seen fewer shots, a testament to the strength of Cornell's team defense.

DOUBLE YOUR FUN
With five games remaining in the 2010 season, Cornell has already recorded more than twice as many goals as were scored during the 2009 campaign. In fact, the Big Red equaled the 2009 season total after just two games in 2010, scoring eight goals in the season opening weekend against Delaware and Delaware State. Since then, Cornell has added another 10 goals to the ledger, with the 18 goals notched so far this season the highest total since the Big Red struck for the same number in 2006.

STAY POSITIVE
Cornell's game against Colgate on Oct. 3 concluded the non-conference portion of the schedule for the Big Red, and Cornell wrapped up games against Ivy League foes with a 5-3 mark. That marks just the eighth time since Ivy League play began in 1990 that the Big Red had a better-than-.500 record outside of the league, and the first time since going 6-1 outside of league play in 2005.

LENDING A HELPING HAND
Coming hand-in-hand with the increased goal production, the Big Red offense has tallied 15 assists through the first 10 games of the 2010 season. That number is the highest mark during the coaching tenure of head coach Danielle LaRoche and is the most since 2003, when Cornell picked up 23 assists.

SPREADING THE WEALTH
Through 10 games this season, a total of 10 different players have scored at least one goal for the Big Red. Last year, the number of different goalscorers was five, with the 10 so far this season the most since the Big Red had 10 different goalscorers in the 1999 season. Cornell also had 10 different players score goals in 1994, 1987 and 1984, with the record for most different scorers being 11, set in 1991.

ON THE SCOREBOARD
Of the 10 different players who have found the back of the net so far this season, seven of those players (Rachel Nichols, Xandra Hompe, Megan Crowell, Mary Keroack, Caedran Harvey, Annmarie Irwin, Kristina Jackson) have recorded their first career goals.

LONG TIME COMING
Cornell's seven-goal outburst on Sept. 5 against Delaware State marked the first time the Big Red offense erupted for that total since defeating Army, 7-2, on Oct. 22, 1996, a span of nearly 14 years. The seven-goal margin of victory was the largest for Cornell since downing Bucknell, 7-0, on Oct. 18, 1992, a span of nearly 18 years. Additionally, the seven goals tie the Cornell record for most goals scored in a game, a mark previously set four times.

AIR FORCE
Junior Sidra Bonner has four career goals to her credit, and each of the four have come the exact same way: a header off a corner kick. Bonner led the team in scoring last season with six points on three goals, and added another with a header off Xandra Hompe's corner kick in the first half against Delaware State on Sept. 5.

IVY HONORS
Freshman Mary Keroack was named the Ivy League's Rookie of the Week after her two-goal performance against Delaware State on Sept. 5.

YOUTH IS SERVED
Of the 28 players on the 2010 roster for the Big Red, just two of them - Katie Hayes and Lena Russomagno - are seniors, giving the Big Red an outstanding foundation for the future. In fact, of the nine players who have recorded at least one point through the first two weekends of play, only Sidra Bonner and Brook Chang are juniors - all of the others are either freshmen or sophomores.

FOR STARTERS
Cornell has had great success in the 28 season openers in the program's history, picking up a 16-8-4 mark in the first game of the season despite the loss to Delaware to open the 2010 campaign. The Big Red is now 1-2-1 in season openers under Danielle LaRoche.

NATIONAL APPEAL
When Danielle LaRoche explains the recruiting efforts to bring together the 2010 team as searching far and wide, she's not kidding. The Big Red has 15 different states represented on the team roster, with California and Virginia having five apiece. New Jersey has three players wearing the Carnelian Red, while Minnesota, Michigan and Massachusetts each have a pair of players on the Cornell roster. States with a single representative include Hawaii, Maryland, Ohio, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Delaware, Connecticut and New York.

UP NEXT
The Big Red returns to the road for the final time in 2010 when it travels to Brown for a 2 p.m. contest against the Bears on Sun., Oct. 24, in Providence, R.I. After the matchup with Brown, the Big Red will close out the year with back-to-back home contests against Princeton and Dartmouth.