ITHACA, N.Y. – The Big Red will get its potentially most challenging Ivy League game out of the way first Saturday night when it travels to Philadelphia. The opponent: Penn. The time: 7 p.m. Penn is receiving votes nationally and is the only Ivy League that can make that claim.

MATCH INFORMATION
MATCH #9: Cornell at Penn
MATCH TIME: Saturday, Oct. 1, 7:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Rhodes Field (Philadelphia)
SERIES RECORD: Penn leads, 59-28-13
LAST MEETING: Cornell lost 1-0 on Oct. 2, 2010
2011 RECORDS: Cornell (4-1-3); Penn (5-2-1)
LIVE STATS: Penn Athletics
LIVE VIDEO: Penn Athletics (subscription required)


ABOUT THE BIG RED
Though the team's winning streak was snapped with a tie on Monday, the Big Red continues to ride an unbeaten streak of seven games. Cornell men's soccer last had a streak that long since the start of the 2002 season. Cornell has sandwiched three ties around a four-game winning streak, and the team is ranked No. 9 in the NSCAA Northeast Region. The team's leading scorer is Daniel Haber (3 goals), and goalkeeper Rick Pflasterer is seeing most of the action in the net.

HEAD COACH JARO ZAWISLAN
The 2011 season is Jaro Zawislan's third at the helm of the Big Red. He racked up a 10-14-10 record in his first two seasons, improving a team that finished 1-15 in 2008 to 6-6-5 in 2009. He earned his first Cornell victory on Sept. 7, 2009 against Hartwick and his 10th on Oct. 12 at Colgate. Zawislan, a native of Poland, played soccer for four years at Clemson and then spent time professionally in the United States and Poland. His first college coaching job was at Creighton in 1999.

ABOUT PENN
The Quakers, based in Philadelphia, enter Saturday's home game with a 5-2-1 record and an identical .688 winning percentage as Cornell. Penn is the only team in the Ivy League with more points on the season. Penn last played on Saturday and Sunday in the Penn Soccer Classic, a home tournament the Quakers won two games by a combined 7-1 margin. Penn freshman striker Duke Lacroix, coming off an Ivy League Rookie of the Week win, is the leading scorer with five goals. Stephen Baker, the current Ivy League Co-Player of the Week, is close behind with four. As a team, Penn is ahead of Cornell in every offensive category, but only barely.

The Quakers are coached by Rudy Fuller, a 1993 graduate of Georgetown now in his 14th year heading the Penn program.

THE SERIES WITH PENN
Cornell and Penn have met 100 times, with the Quakers holding a 59-28-13 lifetime advantage. When the teams met last season, Penn emerged with a 1-0 win thanks to a heartbreaking 89th-minute strike by Travis Cantrell.

LIMITED ROSTER
For Ivy League road games, soccer teams are allowed to bring just 18 players, so Cornell's bench will be shorter than usual against Penn. Home teams are allowed to use their entire roster in Ivy League play.

PROLIFIC SCORERS
Conor Goepel's goal against St. Bonaventure on Monday was the team's 14th of the season. That total is one more than the offense's entire output from the 2010 campaign. With half the season complete, the Big Red is on pace to more than double its number of goals from last year. Through Saturday's games, Cornell had the third-most goals among the Ivy League squads, two behind Yale and three behind Penn.

TOUGH STRETCH
Cornell just wrapped up its most crowded period of the season, playing five games in 11 days and emerging with a 4-0-1 mark. The Big Red now has the luxury of only facing one midweek game the rest of the year.

SPREADING THE LOVE
Of the 29 players on Cornell's roster, 25 have seen playing time in the first eight games and 19 different players have started. Of the 19 starters, only six have started every game: Patrick Slogic, Jake Rinow, Peter Chodas, Jimmy Lannon, Ben Williams and Rick Pflasterer.

A WIN WOULD…
...start the Ivy League season with a victory for the first time since 2005…give the Big Red its first eight-game unbeaten streak since Nov. 12, 1995…put the Big Red four games over .500 for the first time since Oct. 16, 1999…bring Jaro Zawislan's career winning percentage to .500…surpass the team's win total from all of last season.

TAKING THEIR SHOTS
Cornell continues to dramatically outshoot its opponents, more than doubling their combined efforts with a 146-63 edge. Cornell also holds a 64-27 edge in shots on goal. That number puts the Big Red second in the Ivy League behind Penn's 160 through Tuesday's games. Haber leads the team with 28 shots – good for fourth in the Ivy League – 13 shots on goal, three goals and three assists for a team-high nine points.

PUT THEM IN A CORNER
The Big Red is getting plenty of practice at corner kicks so far this season, with 57 reps in its eight games compared to the competition's 27. The team has converted one directly into a goal, with Stephen Reisert's bending kick landing on Patrick Slogic's head and going into the net against Binghamton. The team has taken more corner kicks than any Ivy League school except Yale, which also has 57

THROWING OFF OPPONENTS
Jimmy Lannon continues to be dangerous with long throw-ins into the penalty area. Lannon's throw in the season opener against Niagara lead to a goal by Slogic, and Lannon earned an assist from a throw-in on Conor Goepel's game-winning goal against Hofstra on Sept. 17. Lannon was named Offensive MVP of the CU Inaria Class in mid-September.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Haber earned Ivy League Co-Player of the Week honors for the week of Sept. 18-25. Haber scored the game-winning goal against St. Joseph's on Sept. 23 and also earned two assists on Sept. 21 against Binghamton. Haber became the Red's first Player of the Week winner since midfielder Brian Kuritzky on Sept. 4, 2007.

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
For scoring the game-winning goal against Hofstra just four minutes into the contest, Goepel was named the Ivy League's Rookie of the Week for the week of Sept. 10-17. Goepel, a midfielder from Chatham, N.J., has played in all seven games for the Big Red this year, starting in three. He has racked up seven shots, including three on goal, and looks to be a promising contributor to Cornell soccer for years to come.

MINDING THE NET
Rick Pflasterer is backing up his terrific 2010 campaign with another great run in 2011. His goals against average of 0.70 is second-best among the Ancient Eight teams, and Pflasterer earned clean sheets in his last four of his last five outings. The team had a streak of 501 minutes without allowing a goal until the 87th minute of the St. Bonaventure game, and Pflasterer has played all but nine minutes this year. He earned Defensive MVP honors in the CU Inaria Classic in mid-September.

ST. BONAVENTURE TIE
Cornell was unable to extend its winning streak to five games when it traveled to St. Bonaventure on Monday. The Bonnies, down 1-0 for the entire second half, struck back with three minutes to go to salvage a tie at home. Cornell did bring its undefeated streak to seven games with the tie. Goepel had the Big Red's lone goal in the 40th thanks off a Jake Rinow throw-in and a Patrick Slogic redirect.

BRING IN THE YOUNG GUNS
The 2011 Cornell squad features 10 new players, including nine freshmen and one transfer. All together, the 10 newcomers make up more than one third of the 29-player roster. Justin Orden, who spent his freshman year at Wake Forest, is the lone transfer. All 10 have now seen playing time this year, with goalkeeper Zach Zagorski and midfielder Matt Leach earning their first minutes in the Binghamton game.

UP NEXT
The Big Red opens its home Ivy League schedule with a 4 p.m. game against Harvard on Saturday, Oct. 8.