With its first win under its belt, the women's soccer team will turn its attention back to Ivy League play this weekend when it travels to defending champion Harvard at noon Saturday.
 
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #12: Cornell at Harvard
DATE: Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012
TIME: Noon
SITE: Cambridge, Mass. — Soldiers Field Soccer Stadium
2012 RECORDS: Cornell 1-10 (0-2 Ivy League); Harvard 5-3-2 (1-1 Ivy)
LAST MEETING: Tied, 2-2, on Oct. 8, 2011 in Ithaca
ALL-TIME SERIES RECORD: Harvard leads, 20-3-7
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.prestosports.com/harvard/wsoc/?e=p4dursz46ofouj2j

ABOUT THE BIG RED
The long wait for Cornell's first victory finally came to an end in its last game, a 4-1 decision over visiting Lafayette on Tuesday. All four Big Red goals came in a span of 12 minutes after the Leopards struck first. Senior forward Xandra Hompe factored in all of them, setting up classmate Moonie Mancho for a strike 40 seconds before halftime and then scoring the winner early in the second half. Hompe then set up senior forward Maneesha Chitanvis for the final two goals, allowing the Big Red to cruise down the stretch and break a 16-game winless skid dating back to Sept. 25, 2011. Hompe now leads the team in scoring with three goals and four assists for 10 points, followed closely Chitanvis with a team-high four goals and an assist for nine 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 11 games so far for the Big Red.
 
ABOUT HARVARD
The Crimson is 5-3-2 to start the season, but the defense of its Ivy League title had a rocky start with a 1-0 loss to Penn on Sept. 21. Harvard has since rebounded with an overtime victory over visiting Yale on Sept. 29, then a non-league 2-1 triumph against New Hampshire on Tuesday night. Junior midfielder Peyton Johnson, an All-Ivy First Team selection last season, leads the team with nine points on two goals and five assists. Senior defender Taryn Kurcz has a team-high three goals, and Harvard also two goals apiece from sophomore midfielder Meg Casscells-Hamby, junior forward Elizabeth Weisman and freshman forward Emily Mosbacher. Sophomore Bethany Kanten is the primary goalkeeper, sporting a 4-3-2 record with a 1.41 goals-against average and .755 save percentage.
 
THE SERIES WITH HARVARD
The lone non-win in the Crimson's march to the Ivy League title last season came at the hands of Cornell when the teams settled for a 2-2 tie on Oct. 8, 2011 at Berman Field. Maneesha Chitanvis scored with 1:45 left in the second half for the Big Red, and Xandra Hompe assisted on the squad's first goal about 15 minutes earlier. Cornell hasn't beaten Harvard since Oct. 2, 1993, when an overtime goal by Amy Duesing proved to be all the scoring.
 
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 Tuesday's 4-1 pummeling of Lafayette, 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. Five of the team's last six losses were decided by a single goal leading up to the victory over Lafayette. Cornell has been shut out just twice in 11 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 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 host its second Ivy League game of the season at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 13, when it takes on Yale in the second game of a Berman Field doubleheader. After a trip to Brown the following weekend, the Big Red will culminate its season with home games against Princeton and Dartmouth.