GAME INFORMATION
GAME #11: Cornell at Harvard
DATE: Saturday, Oct. 9, 2010
TIME: 11:00 a.m.
SITE: Cambridge, Mass. - Ohiri Field
2010 RECORDS: Cornell - 5-5 (0-2 Ivy League); Harvard - 4-4-1 (1-1 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Harvard leads, 18-3-6
LAST MEETING: Harvard won, 2-0, on Oct. 10, 2009, in Ithaca, N.Y.
LIVE STATS: http://gocrimson.com/links/czaw7w

The Cornell women's soccer team heads to Cambridge, Mass., in search of its first Ivy League victory of the season on Saturday, taking on the host Crimson of Harvard in an 11 a.m. matchup at Ohiri Field.

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 12-42-2. 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 split its two meetings last weekend, dropping an Ivy League contest to Penn, 3-0, on Friday night at Berman Field but rebounding with a 2-0 victory at Colgate on Sunday afternoon. In the win against the Raiders, junior Brook Chang and sophomore Maneesha Chitanvis scored on each end of halftime, while junior goalkeeper Kelly Murphy made four stops for her second shutout of the season. Chang leads a balanced Big Red attack with a team-best four goals and nine points, while Chitanvis is right behind with eight points on three goals and two assists. Sophomore Xandra Hompe and freshman Rachel Nichols share the team lead in assists with four apiece. In all, 10 different players have scored a goal this season for the Big Red, and 11 players have recorded at least one point. In goal, Murphy has split time with fellow junior Megan Bartlett, with Murphy posting a .864 save percentage and a 0.62 goals-against average. Bartlett, meanwhile, has a 1.80 goals-against average and a .757 save percentage. The Big Red netminders have combined for a 1.20 goals-against average and a .800 save percentage with four shutouts.

ABOUT HARVARD
The Crimson enters Saturday's game with a 4-4-1 overall record and a 1-1 mark in Ivy League play. Harvard is paced offensively by Katherine Sheeleigh, who has five goals and four assists on the year for a team-best 14 points. Melanie Baskind also has found the back of the net five times while adding one assist for 11 points on the year. In goal, Alexandra Millet and Jessica Wright have split time, with Millet posting a 1.76 goals-against average and a .708 save percentage. Wright, meanwhile, has a 2.10 goals-against average and a .725 save percentage.

THE SERIES WITH HARVARD
Harvard holds a strong edge in the all-time series, leading 18-3-6. Cornell's last victory against the Crimson came in 1994, a 2-0 victory in Cambridge, Mass., while the Big Red last played to a tie with Harvard on Oct. 11, 2003, a 1-1 draw in Ithaca. Cornell has been shut out in each of the last five contests against the Crimson.

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.

WHERE WOULD SHE BE?
When Kelly Murphy came out of the Sept. 7 game against Delaware State with 14 minutes to play, little thought was made of it. Now, however, with five games remaining in the regular season, it's those 14 minutes that are keeping Murphy from ranking among the national leaders in goals-against average and save percentage. Murphy is just shy of the requirement of playing half a team's total minutes to qualify for the national leaders. For the fun of it, Murphy would rank 27th in the nation in goals-against average, while her .864 save percentage would have her tied for 30th nationally.

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
Cornell returns home to tackle Yale in a 4 p.m. contest on Saturday, Oct. 16, at Berman Field.