GAME INFORMATION
GAME #15: Cornell vs. Dartmouth
DATE: Saturday, Nov. 6, 2010
TIME: 4:00 p.m.
SITE: Ithaca, N.Y. - Berman Field
2010 RECORDS: Cornell - 6-7-1 (1-4-1 Ivy League); Dartmouth - 6-7-2 (3-2-1 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Dartmouth leads, 18-6-5
LAST MEETING: Dartmouth won, 2-0, on Nov. 7, 2009, in Hanover, N.H.
LIVE STATS: http://www.sidearmstats.com/cornell/wsoc

The Cornell women's soccer team closes out the 2010 season on Saturday night when the Big Red plays host to Dartmouth in a 4 p.m. contest at Berman Field. With a win, Cornell will secure its first season at or above the .500 mark since the 2005 campaign. Saturday's game is also Senior Day for fourth-year players Katie Hayes and Lena Russomagno.

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 13-44-3. 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
An own goal was the difference between a win and a loss for the Big Red in its last time out, as a late first-half error tied the score at one against Princeton at Berman Field. The game continued into overtime before the Tigers scored the game-winner for the 2-1 win. Maneesha Chitanvis scored the lone goal for the Big Red, while Megan Bartlett picked up six saves in the loss in goal. Chitanvis has a team-best 12 points this season on five goals and two assists, while Brook Chang has nine points on four goals and one assist. Xandra Hompe and Rachel Nichols are tied for the team lead with four assists. Bartlett has played the majority of time in goal, posting a 1.25 goals-against average and a .820 save percentage with three shutouts. Kelly Murphy has also seen a large portion of time in goal, with a 0.94 goals-against aveage and a .800 save percentage with two clean sheets.

ABOUT DARTMOUTH
Dartmouth enters the weekend with a 3-2-1 record, tied with Columbia for third place in the Ivy League race. Dartmouth has won three straight games heading into the contest with Cornell, including a 3-2 victory last weekend against Harvard. A three-way tie for the team scoring lead sees Peyton Tata, Marina Moschitto and Melisa Krnjaic each with four goals and two assists on the year. In goal, Colleen Hogan has played nearly all of the minutes, posting a 1.20 goals-against average and a .727 save percentage.

THE SERIES WITH DARTMOUTH
Dartmouth holds an 18-6-5 lead in the all-time series, claiming victories in each of the last five meetings. Cornell has not defeated Dartmouth since scoring a 3-0 victory on Nov. 11, 1995, in Monmouth, N.J.

DOUBLE DIGITS
Maneesha Chitanvis' goal on Saturday against Princeton gave her 12 points for the season, the most by a single player since Lena Russomagno had 14 points as a freshman in 2007.

FIRING BLANKS
Cornell's scoreless tie with Brown on Oct. 24 marked the first time since 2005 that the Big Red posted a shutout in back-to-back games. That season, the Big Red blanked Lafayette, 4-0, and Columbia, 1-0, five days apart. Cornell also posted back-to-back shutouts on Sept. 3 and 4 at St. Bonaventure and Robert Morris that season, making up the four shutouts the team registered on the year. This season, Cornell has already held its opponent scoreless six times.

ON THE PLUS SIDE
A win on Saturday against Dartmouth would give the Big Red a .500 overall record for the season, something that hasn't been accomplished since 2005 when Cornell went 7-7-1.

TWO FOR THE MONEY
A win over Dartmouth 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.

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 1.12 this season. Similarly, the Big Red's team save percentage was as low as .651 in 2007, but is just over the 80-percent level (.818) this season. Additionally, the Big Red has posted six shutouts, the most since recording eight clean sheets in 2002.

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 non-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 16 assists through the first 13 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
A total of 10 different players have scored at least one goal for the Big Red this season. 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 2010 season concludes with Saturday's game against Dartmouth.