ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's soccer team will seek its first Ivy League victory of the season against first-place Princeton on Saturday in the second game of a doubleheader at Berman Field. Kickoff is slated for 6 p.m., with the Big Red attempting to hand the Tigers their first Ivy non-win of the season.
 
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #15: Princeton at Cornell
DATE: Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012
TIME: 6 p.m.
SITE: Ithaca, N.Y. — Charles F. Berman Field
2012 RECORDS: Princeton 11-3-1 (5-0 Ivy League); Cornell 1-12-1 (0-4-1 Ivy League)
LAST MEETING: Princeton won, 1-0, on Oct. 30, 2011 in Princeton, N.J.
ALL-TIME SERIES RECORD: Princeton leads, 19-7-4
LIVE STATS: http://sidearmstats.com/cornell/wsoc/scoreboard.aspx

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell has come up on the short end of consecutive 1-0 decisions, Oct. 13 against Yale and Oct. 21 at Brown. The long wait for Cornell's first victory finally came to an end Oct. 2, when it secured a 4-1 decision over visiting Lafayette, then the team followed up with a 1-1 deadlock Oct. 6 at Harvard — the reigning Ivy League champion. With four goals and two assists for 10 points, senior forward Maneesha Chitanvis is tied with classmate Xandra Hompe (3g-4a—10p) for the team lead in points. Senior defender Jayann Gabrio has two goals on free kicks for four points, and junior Tori Christ has been the keeper of record in all 13 games to date. A victory on Saturday would guarantee Cornell as high of a point total in Ivy League play as the program has had since 2002.
 
ABOUT PRINCETON
The Tigers are about as hot as they come, riding a nine-game winning streak into Saturday's match at Berman. Princeton is coming off a 2-1 victory in overtime against La Salle, a team which advanced to the NCAA tournament a season ago. Leading scorer Jen Hoy (17 goals-1 assist—35 points) scored the winning goal in the first overtime period, touching a pass around the charging Explorers goalkeeper just outside of the 18-yard box on the turf surface. Offense has been the name of the Tigers' game, with a current streak of nine consecutive games of scoring at least twice. Hoy, a senior forward, has accounted for nearly half of Princeton's goals, with sophomore midfielder/forward Lauren Lazo (5g-4a—14p), senior midfielder Caitlin Blosser (4g-5a—13p) and sophomore forward Liana Cornacchio (3g-5a—11p) behind her among the team's top scorers. The Tigers have used four different goalkeepers this season, but Claire Pinciaro has been the primary choice with a 9-1 record, 1.10 goals-against average and .784 save percentage. Princeton has a one-game lead in the Ivy League standings.
 
THE SERIES WITH PRINCETON
The Tigers won a bizarre game last season after an early-season snow storm wreaked havoc on the mid-Atlantic coast and forced the two teams to play on a field traditionally reserved for field hockey use. Gabriella Guzman scored the contest's lone goal in the 24th minute after consecutive shots off the crossbar. Princeton is currently riding a 16-game winning streak in the series, including overtime victories in 2009 and 2010. Cornell played Princeton in its first game on the varsity level in 1982, suffering a 3-0 loss.
 
HEAD COACH PATRICK FARMER
Now in his 20th season as a head coach in the NCAA, Patrick Farmer was 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.
 
MOVING UP THE RANKS
With a 4-1 pummeling of Lafayette on Oct. 2, senior forwards Xandra Hompe and Maneesha Chitanvis have moved into exclusive company in program history. Chitanvis now has 16 career goals, ranking 10th on the program's all-time list, and Hompe is now tied for 10th in Big Red history with 11 assists over her four seasons on East Hill.
 
TURNAROUND
After losing its first four games by a combined 11 goals, the Big Red has effectively improved in more recent times. Seven of the team's last eight losses were decided by a single goal, and the squad also secured a three-goal victory over Lafayette and a tie with Harvard. Cornell has been shut out just four times in 14 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 have competed in other varsity sports on East Hill. Senior forward Xandra Hompe was a three-year member of the women's hockey team, which advanced to the NCAA Women's Frozen Four in all of those seasons, and sophomore Claire MacManus is a midfielder with the women's lacrosse team. Both Hompe (9) and MacManus (16) have worn 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 was named the Ivy League Player of the Week on Oct. 8 after scoring twice against Lafayette and assisting on a goal against Harvard the week before. Chitanvis is no stranger to league recognition, having 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.
 
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 conclude its season with its annual Senior Day at 3 p.m. on Nov. 3 against Dartmouth. The Big Red's seven seniors — Ali Barger, Maneesha Chitanvis, Megan Crowell, Jayann Gabrio, Xandra Hompe, Hannah Labadie and Moonie Mancho — will be recognized before the game.