MATCH INFORMATION
MATCH #20: Cornell at Princeton
MATCH TIME: Friday, Nov. 5, 2010; 7:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Jadwin Gym (Princeton, N.J.)
SERIES RECORD: Princeton leads, 42-17
LAST MEETING: Princeton won, 3-0, Oct. 23, 2009 in Ithaca, N.Y.
2010 RECORDS: Cornell (4-16, 2-8 Ivy); Princeton (12-8, 7-2 Ivy)
LIVE STATS: www.GoPrincetonTigers.com
LIVE VIDEO: www.GoPrincetonTigers.com

MATCH #21: Cornell at Penn
MATCH TIME: Saturday, Nov. 6, 2010; 5:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: The Palestra (Philadelphia, Pa.)
SERIES RECORD: Penn leads, 34-23
LAST MEETING: Penn won, 3-0, Oct. 22, 2009 in Ithaca, N.Y.
2010 RECORDS: Cornell (4-16, 2-8 Ivy); Penn (11-10, 7-2 Ivy) *
LIVE STATS: www.PennAthletics.com
LIVE VIDEO: www.PennAthletics.com

* Records prior to Friday evening's contests

THE MATCH-UP: The Big Red volleyball team will play in its final road games of the season this weekend when it travels to Princeton and Penn on Friday, Nov. 5 and Saturday, Nov. 6, respectively. Cornell will face the Tigers at 7 p.m., while the game with the Quakers is slated to begin at 5 p.m. Both Princeton and Penn split a pair of games last weekend, with each team defeating Brown but losing to Yale. The Tigers enter the weekend with a 12-8 record overall, while the Quakers head into Friday's contest with an 11-10 record. Both teams sit in second place in the Ivy League with identical 7-2 records in the conference.

LAST WEEKEND:


THE SERIES VS. PRINCETON: Cornell and Penn first met in the 1974 season, a 2-0 Big Red victory. The Tigers have dominated the series, owning a 42-17 record against Cornell, and have won the last seven meetings.

SCOUTING THE TIGERS: Princeton split its games last weekend, falling to Yale before defeating Brown to improve to 12-8 overall (7-2 Ivy). The Tigers are led by Lydia Rudnick, who ranks first in the conference and 21st in the nation with 4.27 kills per set, while Cathryn Quinn ranks 10th in the conference with 2.57 kills per set. Setter Michaela Venuti is averaging 8.87 assists per game, good for fourth in the conference, and defensive specialist Hillary Ford is registering 4.00 digs per set, good for seventh in the conference.

LAST TIME VS. PRINCETON: The Big Red volleyball gave league-leading Princeton all it could handle, but could not pull out the victory, as the Tigers won in straight sets, 25-23, 29-27 and 25-21. Madeleine Przybyl and Alice Cope led Cornell with 12 and 10 kills, respectively, with Cope hitting .273 (10-4-22) and Przybyl hitting .250 (12-4-32). Pryzbyl also added nine digs and five block assists. Defensive specialist Risa Ka'awa had a match-high 22 digs, while Sierra Young (15), libero Taylor Nieman (12) and Erin McCarthy (11) all had double-digit digs for the Big Red. Setter Jordan Reeder posted 39 assists on the day. Princeton was led by Cathryn Quinn's 15 kills, while Jennifer Palmquist chipped in 11. Quinn hit an impressive .379 with her 15 kills coming on 29 attempts with just four errors. Five Tigers registered double-digit digs, led by Sydney Brombal's 21, while Michaela Venuti handed out 38 assists.

THE SERIES VS. PENN: Like its series with Princeton, Cornell's series with Penn also began in 1974, a 2-0 Big Red victory. The Quakers went on to dominate the series for the rest of the 1970s and '80s, accounting for its 34-23 all-time lead, but since 1990 the series has been much closer, with Penn holding the, 18-12 advantage.

SCOUTING THE QUAKERS: Penn split a pair of games last weekend, beating Brown before losing to Yale to take an 11-10 record overall (7-2 Ivy League) into Friday's game against Columbia. The team is led by Julia Swanson and Lauren Martin with 3.18 and 2.85 kills per set, respectively, while Amanda Pacheco (.357) and Susan Stuecheli (.291) have proven to be incredibly consistent, ranking in the top 10 of the conference in hitting percentage. Swanson is also second on the team with 3.00 digs per set, while defensive specialist Madison Wojciechowski leads the Ivy League and ranks ninth in the nation with 5.84 per set. Setter Megan Tryon also leads the Ivy League with 10.49 assists per set.

LAST TIME VS. PENN: The Quakers hit .264 overall and cruised to a 3-0 victory over Cornell on Oct. 22 at Newman Arena. The Quakers earned a 25-18, 25-21, 25-17 victory to improve to 9-9 (5-1 Ivy), while the Big Red fell to 4-13 (2-5 Ivy). Janel Forte and Alessa Cekauskas led the Big Red offensively with eight kills apiece, while Alice Cope chipped in with seven. Both Erin McCarthy and Taylor Nieman were credited with 10 digs, while Jordan Reeder notched 32 assists and nine digs. Kelly Hansen was in on four of the team's six blocks on the evening. The Big Red hit .133 as a squad in the loss. Lauren Martin led the Quakers with 14 kills on .520 hitting, while Julia Swanson added 10 kills and 12 digs. Madi Wojciechowski posted a game-high 19 digs and Megan Tryon had 38 assists and six digs from the setter position. Penn had just 12 hitting errors on the night while recording 44 kills.

IVY RANKINGS: Cornell players rank among the top 10 in the Ivy League in several statistical categories, including:
* Kelly Hansen – Kills Per Set – 9th – 2.70
* Jordan Reeder – Assists Per Set – 5th – 8.84
* Jordan Reeder – Service Aces Per Set – 5th – 0.25
* Madeleine Przybyl – Blocks Per Set – 5th – 0.96
* Madeleine Przybyl – Hitting Percentage – 9th – .283
* Alice Cope – Blocks Per Set – 10th – 0.87
* Risa Ka'awa – Digs Per Set – 8th – 3.88

MAY I ASSIST YOU?: With her 32 assists against Penn on Oct. 22, Jordan Reeder surpassed Sara Thomson (1,143 assists; 1992-94) to move into 10th place in Cornell history for career assists. The junior setter is one of just three players in the top 10 with less than 250 career sets, as she has accumulated 1,303 assists in just 237 sets. Reeder needs just 48 more assists to edge Amy Korioth (1,350 assists; 1988-90) and move into ninth place.

BLOCK PARTY: With her four block assists last weekend, Kelly Hansen moved into 13th place in Cornell history for block assists with 189. She needs just five more to move into the top 10.

DOUBLE-DOUBLE DENIZEN: Jordan Reeder has posted an assist-dig double-double in 11-of-20 matches this season. She was the only Big Red player to record a double-double on the year, before Deveney Pula (23 kills, 18 digs) and Rachel D'Epagnier (11 kills, 11 block assists) registered their first of the season vs. Columbia on Oct. 2.

DOUBLE-DIGIT DIGS: Junior libero Risa Ka'awa has posted double-digit digs in 14-of-20 matches this season.

HITTING HIGHS: The Big Red recorded a team hitting percentage of .233 against Brown on Oct. 16, the highest hitting percentage so far this season. It is only the second time since the start of the 2009 season that Cornell has hit that well against an Ivy League team (.266 vs. Columbia on Oct. 3).

BLOCKING BROWN: Cornell registered 14 total blocks against Brown on Oct. 16, which matched a season-high for the squad. The Big Red had previously recorded 14 team blocks against Colgate.

100 DIGS: Cornell recorded 101 digs against Columbia on Oct. 2, reaching the century mark in a match for the first time since registering 103 digs vs. Yale on Nov. 3, 2007. One week later, Cornell tallied 101 digs vs. Dartmouth, giving the Big Red 100+ digs in back-to-back matches for the first time since 2007.

SECOND TIME'S THE CHARM: For the second straight season, the Big Red has fallen to Columbia in New York City, only to come back and defeat the Lions the following weekend on its home court at Newman Arena.

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK: Freshman Rachel D'Epagnier became Cornell's first Ivy League Rookie of the Week in volleyball since Katie Marshall was honored on Nov. 14, 2007. The freshmen middle blocker earned the honor after posting an 11-kill, 11-block double-double in the Big Red's 3-2 victory over Columbia on Oct. 2. In that match she also led Cornell with a .450 hitting percentage (11-2-20).

BLOCKS A LOT: Rachel D'Epagnier led the Big Red with 11 block assists against Columbia on Oct. 2. The 11 block assists rank ninth in Big Red history for block assists in a single match and are the most registered by a Cornell player since Kelly Hansen tallied 11 at Penn on Nov. 11, 2008.

BIG HITTER: Deveney Pula tallied a career-high 23 kills vs. Columbia on Oct. 2, the most kills registered by a Big Red player since Katie Marshall tallied 23 vs. Brown on Oct. 20, 2007.

BEATING THE BIG EAST: Cornell's 3-2 victory over UConn at the Colgate Invitational marked the Big Red's first win over a Big East school since it defeated Syracuse, 3-0, on Oct. 24, 2006 at Newman Arena. Since that time, Cornell had gone 0-4 against the Big East, with three loses against the Orange and one against the Huskies.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: The Big Red saw four different players named to three different all-tournament teams earlier this season. Kelly Hansen and Jordan Reeder were selected to the Cornell Invitational all-tournament team, while Risa Ka'awa and Madeleine Przybyl were named to the Best Western Falcon Invitational all-tournament team and the Colgate Invitational all-tournament team, respectively.

MARATHON MATCHES: When the Big Red faced Lamar in the final round of the Cornell Invitational on Sept. 4, the game proved to have the longest fifth set (by points) in Cornell history. The match, which went to 23-21 in the final set, eclipsed the previous record by four points. Prior to the Lamar match, the longest fifth set took place at Harvard on Nov. 10, 2007, when Cornell defeated the Crimson, 19-17.

SEASON OPENERS: With its victory over Siena in the opening round of the Cornell Invitational, the Big Red improved to 26-12-1 all-time in season openers. Since 1995, the Big Red is an impressive 14-3 in the first match of the season.

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN: Senior Erin McCarthy and junior Meagan Tatum have been named captains for the 2010 season

FRESH FACES: The Big Red adds six freshmen to the team this season - Rachel D'Epagnier, Janel Forte, Brittany Fox, Ainsley Lovejoy, Kelly Marble and Sierra Young. All six are taller than 5-11, with two of those six standing 6-1 or taller. The incoming class also draws from six different states, with the group representing Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

HI! MY NAME IS … : There is a new face on the Cornell sideline, as Kate Seabaugh, a former standout player at UConn, joins Coach Sarah Bernson's staff as an assistant coach. She joins the staff while working towards a Master of Engineering degree with a concentration in Financial Engineering at Cornell. Prior to Cornell, Seabaugh was a starter for UConn, where she was an outside hitter, but completed her undergraduate honors finance degree in three years, cutting her playing career short. She helped the Huskies advance to the Big East tournament in each of her three seasons and totaled 621 kills and 625 digs in 90 matches played.

UP NEXT: The Big Red plays its final games of the season next weekend as it faces Brown on Friday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m., before celebrating Senior Night and saying goodbye to Alessa Cekauskas and Erin McCarthy as it faces Yale on Saturday, Nov. 13 at 5 p.m.