GAME INFORMATION
GAME #13: Cornell at Brown
DATE: Sunday, Oct. 24, 2010
TIME: 2:00 p.m.
SITE: Providence, R.I. - Stevenson Field
2010 RECORDS: Cornell - 6-6 (1-3 Ivy League); Brown - 7-4-3 (1-2-1 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Brown leads, 18-7-3
LAST MEETING: Brown won, 1-0, on Nov. 25, 2009, in Ithaca, N.Y.
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.prestosports.com/brown/
LIVE VIDEO: http://www.b2livetv.com/partner_members.asp?id=1

The Cornell women's soccer team plays its fianl road game of the 2010-11 season on Sunday when it takes on Brown in a 2 p.m. contest at Stevenson Field in Providence, R.I. Coming off a 1-0 victory against Yale last weekend in Ithaca, the Big Red will be trying for back-to-back Ivy League wins for the first time since the 1996 season.

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 13-43-2. 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
Cornell picked up its first Ivy League win at home under head coach Danielle LaRoche on Oct. 16 against Yale with a 1-0 victory against the Bulldogs. Maneesha Chitanvis scored the lone goal of the night, while Megan Bartlett stopped six shots to earn the shutout victory. The Big Red offense is led by Chitanvis, who has four goals and two assists for 10 points on the year. Brook Chang has four goals and one assist for nine points, while Xandra Hompe and Rachel Nichols share the team lead in assists with four apiece. The goalkeeping tandem of Kelly Murphy and Megan Bartlett has been exceptional this year, with Murphy posting a 0.94 goals-against average and a .800 save percentage and Bartlett recording a 1.38 goals-against average and a .809 save percentage. Combined, the Big Red goalkeepers have a 1.17 goals-against average and a .811 save percentage with five shutouts.

ABOUT BROWN
The Bears enter the weekend on a two-game winning streak, scoring wins against Rhode Island and Harvard, with both games coming at home. Gina Walker leads the Brown offense with 11 points on four goals and three assists, while Mika Siegelman has four goals and one assist for nine points. The Bears have fielded a goalkeeping tandem of MC Barrett and Amber Bledsoe, who have combined for a 1.02 goals-against average and a .805 save percentage with five shutous.

THE SERIES WITH BROWN
The Bears hold the edge in the all-time series against Cornell, 18-7-3, including a 1-0 victory last season in Ithaca. Cornell claimed the last meeting in Providence, scoring a 2-0 victory in 2008.

UPS AND DOWNS
Cornell's season has taken on the form of a roller coaster over the past month, with the Big Red alternating wins and losses over the last seven games. Cornell won its last time out, a 1-0 victory against Yale, and will be trying to snap the trend of alternating results on Saturday against Brown. In six of the last seven games, the losing team has been held scoreless, with Cornell winning four of those contests.

TWO FOR THE MONEY
A win over Brown this weekend would give the Big Red two league wins, a feat accomplished just once since 2000. Cornell went 2-5 in Ivy League play in 2002, but has won either one or zero games in league play in each season since the turn of the millenium.

SIX-SHOOTER
Cornell's six 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 1.17 this season. Similarly, the Big Red's team save percentage was as low as .651 in 2007, but is just shy over the 80-percent level (.811) this season. Additionally, Cornell's goalkeepers have seen fewer shots, a testament to the strength of Cornell's team defense.

DOUBLE YOUR FUN
With three 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 11 goals to the ledger, with the 19 goals notched so far this season the highest total since the Big Red struck for 23 goals in 2005.

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 12 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
Cornell closes out the season with a pair of home games, beginning with a matchup against Princeton at 4 p.m. on Sat., Oct. 30, at Berman Field. The regular season then ends with a 4 p.m. contest a week later against Dartmouth.