GAME INFORMATION
GAME #7: Cornell vs. Columbia
GAME TIME: Saturday, Sept. 24, at Noon
GAME SITE: Marsha Dodson Field (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 14-1
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 3-2 (2OT) on Sept. 24, 2010 (New York, N.Y.)
2011 RECORDS: Cornell (3-3); Columbia (2-4)
LIVE STATS: http://www.sidearmstats.com/cornell/fhockey/
LIVE VIDEO: None

THE MATCH UP: The Cornell field hockey team will take on Columbia in its Ivy League home-opener on Saturday, Sept. 24 at noon at Marsha Dodson Field. The Big Red is coming off a win over St. Francis (Pa.) while the Lions fell to Quinnipiac on Wednesday evening. Live stats for the game will be available at www.CornellBigRed.com.

THE SERIES WITH COLUMBIA: The series with the Lions began in 1991, six seasons before Columbia officially joined the Ivy League. Cornell is 14-1 all-time against the Lions, with its lone loss coming during the 2004 campaign, Coach Hornibrook's first-ever Ivy League contest. Despite the lopsided nature of the series, three of the last four meetings have gone into overtime and all four have been decided by a single goal.

SCOUTING THE LIONS: Columbia fell to Quinnipiac on Wednesday evening to slip to 2-4 on the season. The squad is averaging 2.5 goals per game and is led by Gabby Kozlowski with four goals, while Leti Freaney and Carson Christus have registered two goals apiece. Goalie Christie O'Hara has seen every minute of action for the Lions and has posted a 3.17 goals-goals against average to go along with a .716 save percentage.

LAST TIME VS. COLUMBIA: With just 2:23 remaining in the second overtime period, Catie De Stio scored off a penalty corner to hand the Big Red a 3-2 win over Columbia in New York City. The game was as closely played as the final score would indicate, with Cornell holding slim advantages in shots (15-12), shots on goal (12-8), and penalty corners (9-7). Goalie Alex Botte stopped six shots to earn the victory, while Christie O'Hara made nine saves in the loss. Each goalie was called upon to stop one shot in each of the overtime periods. The Big Red jumped out to a 2-1 lead when a penalty stroke by Hannah Balleza and a breakaway goal by Christine Hibler were sandwiched around a penalty corner goal from the Lions' Julia Garrison. Cornell took the advantage into the intermission but Garrison knotted the game with just over four minutes to play, scoring off a scrum in front of the net after a penalty corner and sending the game into overtime.

A WIN OVER COLUMBIA WOULD:
* improve the Big Red to 4-3 on the season and even its Ivy League record at 1-1.
* be Cornell's seventh-straight victory over the Lions, dating back to a 3-0 win vs. Columbia in 2005.
* make the Big Red 18-7 all-time on Marsha Dodson Field.
* be Coach Hornibrook's 66th victory with the Big Red and her 236th career win.

THE HEAD COACH: Cornell head coach Donna Hornibrook is in her seventh season at Cornell (65-54, .546) ... Hornibrook became the sixth coach in Cornell field hockey history in January 2004 ... She has a 235-101-10 (.694) record as a head coach, including a 111-39-4 mark at Houghton and a 60-8-6 record at New Brunswick.

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE (A NEW) HOME: The Big Red is 17-7 all-time on the newly constructed Marsha Dodson Field. Collectively, the team has outscored its opponents by a margin of 57-36 and has taken more than twice as many shots (506-230) as its opponents. The defense has been equally solid in the circle, allowing just 134 penalty corners (5.6 per game).

ALL TOURNAMENT TEAM: Sophomores Carolyn Horner and Hannah Balleza were named to the Catamount Invitational All-Tournament Team.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Carolyn Horner was named the Ivy League Player of the Week on Sept. 6 after helping the Big Red field start the season at 2-0 with a pair of victories over Villanova and Lock Haven. After playing a total of just nine minutes all of last season, Horner earned her first career start and, playing behind an entirely new defensive unit, she made seven saves and shut out the Wildcats in Cornell's 1-0 victory. Just two days later, she posted another seven saves as the Big Red defeated the Lady Eagles, 3-2.

KNOCK THREE TIMES: When the Big Red fell to Syracuse during the 2006 season, 4-3, in overtime, it marked the only time in Coach Hornibrook's career with Cornell that the team scored three goals and lost the contest. Under Coach Hornibrook, the Big Red improved to 38-1 in games in which it scores at least three goals after a 3-2 victory against Lock Haven on Sept. 4, 2011.

MOVING ON UP: Senior goalie Alex Botte is steadily making her way up the Cornell career wins records lists. She is currently ranked 10th in career victories (15) and needs just five more to become the winningest goalie in Big Red history. She also ranks 8th overall for shutouts in a career (4) and needs just one more to move up to fifth overall.

CLOSE CALLS: Cornell's 1-0 loss to Penn on Sept. 17, 2011 continued the Big Red's trend of playing in one-goal games. Since the start of the 2006 season, the Big Red has lost 32 games, with 21 of those coming by a single goal, including nine in overtime. During that same span, Cornell has won 52 games, with 26 coming in one-goal games, including eight in overtime.

FAST STARTS: Scoring first has been a big part of the Big Red's success in recent years. Since Coach Hornibrook has taken over the program, Cornell has posted an impressive 56-8 record in games in which they have scored first. Conversely, the team has won only eight games in which they have had to come back from an early deficit to win. The first was Coach Hornibrook's very first victory with the team, a 6-3 win over Lehigh in 2004, with the latest coming on Sept. 4, 2011 as Cornell defeated Lock Haven, 3-2, in Ithaca, N.Y.

TWINS AND MORE TWINS!: While ardent fans of the Big Red know that sophomores Keelin and Mallory Bannon are twins, many might not know that two other members of the team have twins, all of which play collegiate sports. Junior Molly Casey's twin brother, Daniel, is a member of the Brown football team, while Carolyn Horner's twin, Gabrielle, plays lacrosse at Tufts.

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN: Alex Botte and Olivia Boyd have been named captains for the 2011 season.

COMING AT YOU FROM ALL SIDES: Since taking over the Cornell program in 2004, Coach Hornibrook has had a dozen or more players register at least one point in four-of-six seasons, with a high of 14 in 2005. Last season, the Big Red fell just short with 11 players reaching the points' column.

STROKE OF GENIUS: Hannah Balleza converted two penalty strokes for Cornell last season. That was the most made penalty strokes for the Big Red since it converted 2-of-4 during the 2006 season. Balleza's stroke at Columbia was Cornell's first in nearly three years, as its last converted penalty stroke came from Natalie Appleton vs. Syracuse on Oct. 25, 2007. The Big Red did not earn any strokes in 2009 and had one missed in 2008.

HATS OFF: After going three seasons without seeing a Cornell player score three goals in a single game, the Big Red has had four players register hat tricks since the start of the 2008 season – Catie De Stio (Penn, Sept. 18, 2009), Abbi Horn (Georgetown, Sept. 21, 2008), Kelley Kantarian (Colgate, Oct. 9, 2008) and Catie De Stio (Bryant, Oct. 11, 2008). The three hat tricks during the 2008 season was the most by the Big Red since having four during the 1995 season. That year, Cari Hills scored three goals vs. Colgate and four goals against Holy Cross, while Emily Robb tallied three against both Lehigh and Brown. Until the 2008 season, Cornell had never had three different players register hat tricks in the same season.

REIGNING ROOKIE: Following the 2010 season, Hannah Balleza was named the Ivy League Co-Rookie of the Year, sharing the honor with Yale's Georgia Holland. Balleza, who was also and honorable mention All-Ivy selection, became the Big Red field hockey program's first Rookie of the Year recipient since Cari Hills '98 took home the honor in 1994.

ALL-IVY ACCOLADES: Cornell had six players named to the respective All-Ivy teams in 2010, including two players that return for the 2011 season – senior Alex Botte (first-team) and sophomore Hannah Balleza (honorable mention).

SMARTY PANTS: The Big Red placed eight student-athletes on the 2010 Gladiator by SGI/NFHCA Division I National Academic Squad. The eight selections are a program high, surpassing the 2007 team which placed six players on the squad. Mattie Prodanovic '11 and Alex Botte headlined the group with their third selection to the National Academic Squad, while Kate Thompson '11 and Lauren Neal both earned their second honor. Katie Laventure, Shannon Berry, Carolyn Horner, and Brittany Thompson were all first-time honorees.

UP NEXT: The Big Red travels to Yale next weekend to take on the Bulldogs on Saturday, Oct. 1 at noon, before returning to Ithaca for a mid-week matchup with instate rival Colgate on Tuesday, Oct. 4 at 4 p.m.