GAME INFORMATION
GAME #9: Cornell vs. Penn
DATE: Friday, Oct. 1, 2010
TIME: 7:00 p.m.
SITE: Ithaca, N.Y. - Berman Field
2010 RECORDS: Cornell - 4-4 (0-1 Ivy League); Penn - 4-4 (1-0 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Penn leads, 12-6-1
LAST MEETING: Penn won, 2-1, on Oct. 2, 2009, in Philadelphia, Pa.
LIVE STATS: http://sidearmstats.com/cornell/wsoc

GAME #10: Cornell at Colgate
DATE: Sunday, Oct. 3, 2010
TIME: 1:00 p.m.
2010 RECORDS: Cornell - 4-4 (0-1 Ivy League); Colgate - 3-7 (0-0 Patriot)
SERIES RECORD: Colgate leads, 14-13-4
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 2-0, on Sept. 16, 2009, in Ithaca, N.Y.
LIVE STATS: http://sidearmstats.com/colgate/wsoc
LIVE VIDEO: http://www.gocolgateraiders.com/showcase/

After playing each of the last six matches away from home, the Cornell women's soccer team returns to the familiar surroundings of Berman Field to open up a two-game week this weekend, facing Penn in an Ivy League contest on Friday night. The Big Red will then return to the road for a matchup with in-state rival Colgate on Sunday in Hamilton, N.Y.

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 11-41-2. 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
The Big Red has found the past two weeks to be much to its liking, as Cornell went 3-1 over an eight-day span, with all four games being played on the road. The Big Red opened that stretch with a 2-0 blanking of Bucknell on Sept. 19, before downing Binghamton three days later by a 3-1 score. Cornell's mini-run came to a close in the Ivy League opener on Sept. 24 at Columbia, 1-0, but the Big Red closed out its trip to the New York City area with a 2-0 victory against Manhattan on Sept. 26. In all, Cornell has struck for seven goals while allowing just two over its last four games. Junior Brook Chang has scored seven points on three goals and one assist to lead the Big Red offense, which features 10 different players who have found the back of the net at least once this year. Sophomore Maneesha Chitanvis and freshman Rachel Nichols are hot on the heels of Chang with six points each, with Chitanvis posting two goals and two assists and Nichols recording a goal and four helpers to lead the squad in that category. In goal for Cornell, the netminding tandem of juniors Kelly Murphy and Megan Bartlett has been outstanding, with Murphy posting a 0.78 goals-against average and a .833 save percentage to go along with a 3-1 record and one shutout. Bartlett, meanwhile, has a 1.50 goals-against average and a .778 save percentage with a hard-luck 1-3 mark with one shutout. As a unit, Cornell's three goalkeepers have combined to allow 1.12 goals per game and are stopping 80.4 percent of the shots faced this season.

ABOUT PENN
The Quakers enter the weekend with a 4-4 mark overall and a 1-0 record in league play after downing Harvard, 4-3, on Sept. 24. The Quakers have a balanced attack that has combined for 11 goals in eight games, with four players tallying a pair of goals apiece. Kerry Scalora has two goals and an assist to lead the squad with five points. Caroline Williams have played every minute in goal, posting a 1.25 goals-against average and a .773 save percentage with three shutouts. Penn has had a string of alternating wins and losses dating back to Sept. 10, being shut out in two of the three losses over that span. When Penn scores a goal this season, the Quakers are 4-1.

THE SERIES WITH PENN
Cornell trails the Quakers in the all-time series, 12-6-1, with Penn having claimed each of the last 12 meetings after the Big Red won the first six. Last season, the Quakers took a 2-1 victory on Oct. 2 in Philadelphia. Cornell's last win came on Nov. 7, 1999, in Ithaca, N.Y., a 1-0 Big Red victory.

ABOUT COLGATE
The Raiders have played a rigorous schedule, falling in each of their first three games including a 6-0 defeat to Virginia and a 4-1 loss to Rutgers. The Raiders, like Cornell, went winless in their own tournament on Sept. 10-12, dropping contests to Seton Hall and St. Bonaventure, but rebounding to win back-to-back shutouts against Albany and Vermont. Most recently, the Raiders dropped a 2-1 cotnest to Canisius. Colgate is led offensively by Jillian Kinter, who has three goals for six points. The Raiders have been out-scored 21-10 on the year, that margin is lessened significantly when the contest against nationally ranked Virginia is removed. In goal, Ashley Walsh has played every minute, posting a 2.06 goals-against average and a .764 save percentage.

THE SERIES WITH COLGATE
Cornell scored a 2-0 victory against the Raiders last season at Berman Field, the only win for the Big Red on the year, a win made even more promising by Colgate's eventual Patriot League championship and NCAA tournament berth. Last season's victory snapped a five-game losing skid to the Raiders and marked the first shutout over Colgate since a 2-0 win in 2002. Colgate holds a slim 8-7 lead in games played in Hamilton, N.Y.

DOUBLE YOUR FUN
With the Big Red now halfway through the 2010 schedule, Cornell has already recorded 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 eight goals to the ledger, with the 16 goals notched so far this season the highest total since the Big Red struck for 18 goals in 2006.

LENDING A HELPING HAND
Coming hand-in-hand with the increased goal production, the Big Red offense has tallied 13 assists through the first eight games of the 2010 season. That number is the highest mark during the coaching tenure of head coach Danielle LaRoche and is tied with the 2005 and 2006 seasons for the highest mark since 2003, when Cornell picked up 23 assists.

SPREADING THE WEALTH
Through eight 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.

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 80.4 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. Nichols added her fourth assist in the win at Manhattan on Sept. 26. As a team, the Big Red has 13 assists this season.

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 Big Red continues a brief two-game road swing when it heads to Cambridge, Mass., for a contest at Harvard on Sat., Oct. 9. That contest will begin at 11 a.m. as the opener of a doubleheader with the men's game to follow.