ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ivy League title is in sight. With a victory against Columbia on Saturday night, the Big Red men's soccer team will claim the conference crown for the first time in 17 years. The Lions, who tied the Big Red in a similar situation last season, will delight in the chance to play spoiler to Cornell's hopes in both teams' regular season finales.

MATCH INFORMATION
MATCH #16: No. 14 Cornell at Columbia
MATCH TIME: Saturday, Nov. 10, 7 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Columbia Soccer Stadium (New York, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Columbia leads 31-19-9
LAST MEETING: Teams tied 1-1 on Nov. 12, 2011
2012 RECORDS | LEAGUE STANDING: Cornell (14-1, 5-1 Ivy | 1st), Columbia (4-7-4, 2-2-2 Ivy | 5th)
LIVE STATS: Columbia Live Stats
LIVE AUDIO/VIDEO: None

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Four years after going 1-15, the Cornell men's soccer team is one win away from an Ivy title. The Big Red got this close thanks to a terrific 2-1 overtime victory last weekend against Dartmouth. After Stephen Reisert tied the game 93 seconds after Dartmouth's goal, the teams went scoreless for the final 60 minutes of regulation and the first 10 minutes of overtime. But a chip into the box by Daniel Haber was headed by Reisert, bounced to Tyler Regan off a defender and bounced right back to Regan off another defender. He didn't miss with his second shot, and he sent Cornell to a delirious celebration in front of its fans. An NCAA Tournament berth is guaranteed with one more victory on Saturday.

HEAD COACH JARO ZAWISLAN
Now in his fourth year with the Big Red program, Jaro Zawislan has unquestionably put his stamp on the team. With a stifling defense and an aggressive offense, Zawislan has transformed what was a 1-15 team before his arrival into an 8-2-6 team in 2011 and a contender for the Ivy League title in 2012. Zawislan, a native of Poland, holds a 32-17-15 record during his time in Ithaca. He played soccer for four years at Clemson and then spent time professionally in the United States and Poland.

ABOUT COLUMBIA
The Lions, based in New York, hold a 4-7-4 record this season and sit in fifth place in the Ivy League at 2-2-2. They are most recently coming off a 1-0 victory against Harvard last weekend, and they tied the weekend before that 1-1 with Yale. Columbia's last loss came on Oct. 20 against Dartmouth. The Lions are led on offense by Henning Sauerbier, Kofi Agyapong and Nick Scott. Each of them has two goals and one assist for five points. The team has eight different goal scorers. In goal, freshman Kyle Jackson is the four-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week with a 0.94 goals against average and 11 total goals allowed.
Columbia is coached by Kevin Anderson, now in his fourth year leading the Lions.

THE SERIES WITH COLUMBIA
Cornell and Columbia are long-time rivals with the Lions holding a 31-19-9 advantage in the historical series. Last season saw the teams tie 1-1 in a game that would have given either team at least a share of the Ivy League title with a victory. Columbia's David Najem scored in the 17th minute, but Daniel Haber scored to tie the game in the 41st. Neither team could get a game-winner, and Cornell finished its season with its sixth tie of the year. Cornell last defeated Columbia in 2009, with the teams tying in 2010. Columbia's last victory in the series came in 2008. The Lions have been the Big Red's final game of the season every year since 2008.

A WIN AGAINST COLUMBIA WOULD…
…give Cornell its first Ivy League title since 1995 and its first outright (non-shared) title since 1977…clinch a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1996…tie the school record for victories in a season (15)…give Cornell six conference wins for the first time since 1995…be its first over Columbia since 2010.

IVY LEAGUE SCENARIOS
With one game to go, Cornell controls its own destiny in the Ivy League. A victory against Columbia means a league title and an NCAA berth no matter the result of the Brown/Dartmouth game on Friday night.

If Cornell ties against Columbia, the Big Red would still win the league title and the automatic NCAA bid with a Dartmouth win against Brown or a Dartmouth/Brown tie. A Cornell tie and a Brown victory would give the league title and NCAA bid to Brown.

If Cornell loses to Columbia, a Brown victory against Dartmouth would give Brown the league title and the NCAA automatic bid. A Brown/Dartmouth tie would share the league title between Brown and Cornell, with Brown getting the auto bid based on its win against the Big Red. If Cornell loses and Dartmouth wins, Cornell and Dartmouth share the league title with Cornell getting the NCAA auto bid based on its win over Dartmouth last weekend.

Dartmouth and Brown play at 7 p.m. on Friday night, so Cornell will go into Saturday's game knowing what is possible.

HOME COOKING
Cornell's victory against Dartmouth marked the first time Cornell has gone unbeaten and untied in its home games during a season since 1975. The Big Red went 9-0 at home that year and was 8-0 at home this season. Those are the only two seasons the Big Red was unblemished in Ithaca.

NEW WINNING STREAK?
Though Cornell's season-opening 12-game winning streak ended with a loss to Brown, Cornell is back on another winning run with two consecutive victories. Until last year's three-win start to the Ivy League, the Big Red had not won back-to-back Ivy League games since 2006. A victory against Columbia would be just the team's third Ivy League winning streak of three games – counting this year and last year's other such streaks – since 1999.

SENIOR DAY
Saturday's victory against Dartmouth was the last regular season home game for three Big Red seniors. Goalie Rick Pflasterer had a season-high seven saves, forward Tyler Regan had the game-winning goal and midfielder Nico Nissl distributed the ball while playing through pain after a hard foul in the first half. Saturday will be the last regular season game of their Cornell careers.

BERMAN BROKEN
Cornell saw a new program record on Oct. 13 as 1,121 fans came out to Berman Field watch its game against Yale. The previous attendance record, 983, was shattered by 138 people. The fans were rewarded with a 3-0 shutout victory against the Bulldogs.

DECISIVE VICTORIES
Cornell finished the 2011 season with six ties. Not only has the Big Red not had a tie game this season, but the team has only been to overtime once. Thirteen of Cornell's 14 victories have come in regulation.

THREE GOALS IN SEVEN STRAIGHT
The win against Yale on Oct. 13 was Cornell's seventh consecutive game scoring at least three goals in game. Before this year, the Big Red had never scored three goals in more than five consecutive games. Cornell scored three goals in five straight games in 1980 and 1958.

AMAZING GOAL TOTAL
Junior forward Daniel Haber has scored 17 goals this season, a number that is better than Yale (9), Columbia (12) and Harvard (12). Haber is not a one-man show, though, as his 17 goals account for less than half of the Big Red's 38 on the year.

FLAWLESS NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
With its victory against Colgate on Oct. 9, the Big Red finished its non-conference slate with a perfect 9-0-0 record. The Big Red had not been undefeated in non-conference competition since the 1983 season when it went 6-0-2. Cornell had not gone unblemished in non-conference games since 1965, when the team was just 4-0-0. In 1957, Cornell was also 3-0-0 in non-Ivy games.

OFFENSIVE SEASON
The Big Red is up to 38 goals on the year, a number well above 2011's total of 25 and a number that is the third-highest in team history. Cornell has not scored this many goals in a season since the 1996 campaign when it totaled 37 goals. The Big Red tie for second in team history with three goals against Columbia. The school record for goals in a year belongs to the 1972 squad's 43.

The Big Red has also tallied 34 assists this year, a number that is the school record. The Big Red eclipsed 100 points on the season four weeks ago and is five shy of the program record (115) set in 1971.

LAST WEEK IN THE IVY LEAGUE
Cornell's first place takeover of the Ancient Eight was made possible by a 1-1 tie between Brown and Yale. Yale's Bobby Thalman made 11 saves to keep Brown from holding the league lead. In other league games, Princeton beat Penn 3-0 and Columbia topped Harvard 1-0.

NATIONALLY RANKED
Thanks to its big win against Dartmouth, Cornell is moving up most national polls. One week after being No. 15 in the NSCAA Coaches' Poll, the Big Red is now at No. 14. Cornell has also leapt up three spots to No. 18 in the Soccer America poll. The team remains at No. 11 in College Soccer News' poll. And on Top Drawer Soccer, the Big Red is still at No. 26 in the website's NCAA Tournament Projection.

NATIONAL STATISTICS
Cornell is still high up in the country in multiple statistical categories as of Monday. Cornell is the fourth-highest scoring team in the country (2.53 goals per game). Cornell is also 12th in total goals (38), 25th in goals against average (0.79), 21st in total assists (34) and 14th in total points (110). The Big Red also has the best winning percentage (.933) in the nation.

Individually, Daniel Haber remains on top of the nation in points per game (2.73). He is still second in the country in total points and goals per game while dropping to third in total goals. Nico Nissl is ninth in the nation with 0.53 assists per game, while Haber is right behind him in 28th with 0.47. Tyler Regan is 52nd in that category with 0.4. Goalie Rick Pflasterer has the 26th-best goals against average (0.80) in the country.

CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
On Saturday:
• Jake Kirsch played his 1,000th career minute.
• Rick Pflasterer tied the Cornell goalie record for most wins in a season (14).

Coming soon:
• Daniel Haber is one goal away (28) from a fourth-place tie in team history for career goals and a second-place tie for goals in a single season (18). His next point will put him in sole possession of second in team history for a single season, and he is two points shy of a three-way tie for third in team history over a career. He will be tied for fifth in team history with his next assist (14).
• Rick Pflasterer's next win will break the single-season record. He is two wins away from tying the Cornell career record for wins (29).
• Tyler Regan and Nico Nissl's next assist will be their 10th.

UP NEXT
With the regular season complete, Cornell awaits its NCAA Tournament fate. The NCAA Selection Show will air on NCAA.com on Monday with 48 teams earning a spot. The top 16 teams will be seeded and earn a first-round bye.