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GAME INFORMATION
GAME #6: Cornell at Binghamton
DATE: Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010
TIME: 7:00 p.m.
SITE: Vestal, N.Y. - Bearcats Sports Complex
2010 RECORDS: Cornell - 2-3 (0-0 Ivy League); Binghamton - 2-6 (0-0 America East)
SERIES RECORD: Binghamton leads 1-0-2
LAST MEETING: 0-0 tie on Sept. 4, 2009, in Ithaca, N.Y.

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ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell women's soccer team will play the fourth of its six straight games away from home tonight when the Big Red visits Central New York rival Binghamton at 7 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex. The two teams will be meeting for the fourth time, with the Big Red looking to earn its first-ever win in the series (0-1-2), even its record at 3-3 and send it into Ivy League play with consecutive road victories.

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 9-40-2. She picked up her first collegiate head coaching victory on Sept. 7, 2007, when Cornell defeated Hartford, 1-0, in double overtime. 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
After a 2-0 win over Bucknell on Sunday, the Big Red improved to 2-3 on the season and surpassed last season's win total.  Cornell's offense is paced by sophomore Megan Crowell and freshman Mary Keroack, who have a pair of goals for four points on the year. In all, 11 different players have recorded at least one point this season. In goal, Bartlett and Murphy have split time, with Bartlett earning three starts and Murphy taking two. Murphy has a 1.09 goals-against average with nine saves and a 1-1 record, while Bartlett has a 1.67 goals-against average and a .783 save percentage with 18 saves. As a team, the Big Red is allowing 1.40 goals per game and stopping 79 percent of the shots faced on the year.

ABOUT BINGHAMTON
Binghamton brings a 2-6 contest into the non-conference battle with the Big Red, including three straight defeats. The Bearcats have lost three games by 1-0 scores and another contest by a single goal. Binghamton has scored 0.75 goals per game and surrendered 1.50 per game, but has actually out-shot its opponents (102-93) in eight games, including an impressive 60-36 in the first half of its games. Sarah Furminger has two goals and two assists for six points to lead BU, while Kaitlyn Cook has tallied twice. Both have tallied a game-winning goal on the year. Only four players have started all eight matches for Binghamton. Carrie Martin has posted a 1.51 goals against average with a .750 save percentage so far in 2010 in goal for head coach Sarah McClellan.

THE SERIES WITH BINGHAMTON
Binghamton holds a 1-0-2 edge in the all-time series with the Big Red after last year's 0-0 overtime tie at Berman Field. The teams first met during the 2002 campaign in Vestal with the Bearcats taking a 2-0 victory. The only other meeting came in 2004, another scoreless overtime draw in Ithaca.

EIGHT IS ENOUGH
It took the Big Red women's soccer team just one weekend this season to match its scoring output from the entire 2009 campaign, scoring a combined eight goals against Delaware and Delaware State. Cornell then surpassed last season's total when Brook Chang scored in a 3-1 loss to St. Bonaventure for the ninth tally of the year. Cornell needs just three more goals to match the total for the highest offensive output in a season under head coach Danielle LaRoche.

SPREADING THE WEALTH
Through five games this season, nine different players have scored a goal for the Big Red, surpassing the total of five players a year ago to put the ball in the back of the net. Of those nine players, six have scored the first goal of their careers already this season.

MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
Cornell's goalkeepers have been a strength for the Big Red, regardless of whether it is Kelly Murphy or Megan Bartlett as the last line of defense. The Big Red has seen its total goals against drop in each season under head coach Danielle LaRoche, starting at allowing 37 markers in the first season, to 36 in 2008 and 26 in 2009. Similarly, the Big Red shot-stoppers have continued to improve their save percentage, which has risen from .651 in 2007 to .765 in 2008 (when the Big Red goalkeepers stopped 117 shots), to .714 last season. This year, the Big Red netminders are stopping 79 percent of the shots they have faced.

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.

HELPING HAND
Freshman Rachel Nichols leads the team in assists, dishing out three helpers in the first weekend alone. As a team, the Big Red has seven assists this season, though Nichols is the only player with more than one.

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 continues its six-game stretch away from Berman Field by opening Ivy League play with a contest at Columbia on Friday, Oct. 24 at 7 p.m., then ends the road swing on Sunday, Sept. 26, with a contest at Manhattan at 10 a.m.