The women's soccer team will play its final non-league game on Tuesday night, looking to secure its first win of the season when it takes on Lafayette under the lights at Berman Field. The Big Red has never lost to the Leopards in eight all-time meetings.
 
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #11: Lafayette at Cornell
DATE: Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Ithaca, N.Y. — Charles F. Berman Field
2012 RECORDS: Lafayette 4-5-2 (1-0 Patriot League); Cornell 0-10 (0-2 Ivy League)
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 3-2, on Sept. 16, 2007 in Ithaca
ALL-TIME SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 8-0
LIVE STATS: http://sidearmstats.com/cornell/wsoc/scoreboard.aspx

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell continues to zero in on its first victory of the season after suffering a 2-1 loss to Ivy League favorite Penn on Friday. After a scoreless first half played primarily in the middle third, the Quakers broke through for a couple of goals in an eight-minute span to take control. The Big Red clawed back into the game with senior Maneesha Chitanvis making a run up the left sideline before cutting toward goal and sliding a low shot inside the far post to cut the hosts' deficit in half. But none of Cornell's other 11 shots in the half found net, leading to the squad's 10th loss. Freshman defender Morgan Zaidel assisted on Chitanvis' goal, pushing the senior forward into a tie for the team lead in scoring with classmate Xandra Hompe. Senior defender Jayann Gabrio has two goals on free kicks for four points, and junior Tori Christ has started all 10 games in goal so far for the Big Red.
 
ABOUT LAFAYETTE
The Leopards won their Patriot League opener on Saturday against visiting Lehigh, 1-0, giving them shutouts in each of their four victories this season. Senior goalkeeper Lauren Smedley has five shutouts in all — including a season-opener scoreless deadlock with Maryland-Baltimore County. Senior forward Jill Dozier leads the team with six goals and 14 points, including three goals over the last four games. Sophomore forwards Alyssa Finelli and Jaclyn Giordano also have three goals apiece, and senior midfielder Nicole Brownell has a team-high three assists to go with a goal of her own. Junior defender Catherine Galgano was an All-Patriot League Second Team selection last season. The Leopards have already played one Ivy League opponent this season, dropping a 5-2 decision to Princeton in a game where the Tigers' Jen Hoy scored three first-half goals.
 
THE SERIES WITH LAFAYETTE
The Big Red has never lost to the Leopards in eight all-time meetings. The first clash came in 1998, with Cornell securing a 1-0 victory. The last meeting was in 2007, when the Big Red won 3-2 at Berman Field to mark the first time Lafayette had scored a goal in Ithaca over four contests. Cornell is 38-28-4 against teams currently competing in the Patriot League.
 
HEAD COACH PATRICK FARMER
Now in his 20th season as a head coach in the NCAA, Patrick Farmer has been selected as the Cornell women's soccer program's fifth head coach. Farmer comes to the Big Red via the University of Wisconsin, where he served as an assistant coach with the Badgers' women's soccer team for three years. Prior to his stint at Wisconsin, Farmer has amassed a 261-97-40 record at Ithaca College, Penn State, Tennessee Tech and Syracuse. He also served as a head coach at the professional level for two seasons, heading the New York Power of the Women's United Soccer Association. Megan Ramey returns to Cornell for her second season as an assistant coach, and Dwight Hornibrook has also joined the staff as an assistant coach after serving as the head coach of SUNY Cortland men's soccer for the last eight years.
 
CLOSE CALLS
After losing its first four games by a combined 11 goals, the Big Red has gotten noticeably closer to nailing down its first victory of the season. Five of the last six games have been decided by a single goal. Cornell has been shut out just twice in 10 games after having been blanked eight times in 16 games last season.
 
A YEAR OF FIRSTS
All three of the Big Red's goals during the season-opening D.C. Invitational were the first of the scorer's respective collegiate careers. Sophomore forward Jaclyn Katz tallied Cornell's goal in the opener against nationally ranked Georgetown, then senior defender Jayann Gabrio and sophomore midfielder Clara Gallagher scored on Labor Day at George Washington.
 
TWO-SPORT STARS
The Big Red roster features two players that compete in other varsity sports on East Hill. Senior forward Xandra Hompe is also a member of the women's hockey team, which has advanced to the NCAA Women's Frozen Four in each of the last three seasons, and sophomore Claire MacManus is a midfielder with the women's lacrosse team. Both Hompe (9) and MacManus (16) wear the same number in both sports.

YOUTH IS STILL SERVED
After dressing just two seniors in 2010 and six last season, the Big Red still has a decidedly young slant to its roster. Nineteen of the team's 30 players are underclassmen, including 10 sophomores and nine freshmen.
 
SHE'S HONORED
Senior forward Maneesha Chitanvis has earned All-Ivy League honorable mention in each of the last two seasons, despite often drawing double-teams from opposing defenses. Chitanvis had five goals and two assists for a team-leading 12 points in both the 2010 and 2011 seasons, scoring two of those goals in Ivy League play both years. She scored her first goal of 2012 in the Big Red's last game, a 2-1 loss Wednesday at Binghamton.
 
GOOD THINGS COME IN THREES
The Big Red will have tri-captains for the fourth time in six years with seniors Maneesha Chitanvis and Jayann Gabrio, and junior goalkeeper Tori Christ wearing the armbands. Chitanvis (Los Alamos, N.M.) is the program's first captain to come to East Hill via the Land of Enchantment. Christ (West Seneca, N.Y.) and Gabrio (Honolulu, Hawaii) are the first Big Red captains from their respective states since 2005, when the team's co-captains were Shannon Fraser (Hamilton, N.Y.) and Kara Ishikawa (Mililani, Hawaii).

NATIONAL APPEAL
The Big Red has 14 different states represented on the team roster, with its home state of New York having five players on the roster. Cornell has four players that hail from New Jersey, three from Michigan, two each from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Minnesota, California, Virginia, Connecticut and New Mexico, and single representatives of Hawaii, Ohio, Maryland and Colorado.

UP NEXT
Cornell will pay a visit to defending Ivy League champion Harvard (4-3-2, 1-1 Ivy) at noon Saturday before returning home for three of its final four games.