ITHACA, N.Y. – Three days after winning its home opener against Columbia, the Cornell women's lacrosse team is back in action against Canisius. The Big Red will be looking to go 5-0 for the first time since 2009.

GAME INFORMATION
GAME #5: Cornell vs. Canisius
GAME TIME: Tuesday, March 13, 4 p.m.
GAME SITE: Schoellkopf Field (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Teams have never met.
LAST MEETING: Teams have never met.
2011-12 RECORDS: Cornell (4-0, 2-0 Ivy League); Canisius (2-3, 0-0 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference)
LIVE STATS: Cornell Live Stats
LIVE VIDEO:  Redcast

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is off to its best start since in four seasons with a 4-0 record and an unblemished Ivy League record so far. A win on Tuesday would match that 2009 start at 5-0. The 2012 edition of the Big Red is one year removed from a 6-8 campaign, but with a large group of nine experienced seniors and 10 returning starters, Cornell is expecting to compete in the challenging Ivy League.

HEAD COACH JENNY GRAAP
Jenny Graap returned to her alma mater in 1997 with one goal in mind: to build the Cornell women's lacrosse team into a championship contender. Now entering her 15th year at the helm, the 2002 Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association Coach of the Year and 2006 Inside Lacrosse Magazine and IWLCA Northeast Coach of the Year has developed the Big Red women's lacrosse program into one of the most successful in the nation. She has posted a 129-88 record at Cornell and earned her 150th career win against Florida to close the 2011 campaign.

ABOUT CANISIUS
The Golden Griffins, based in Buffalo, are 2-3 so far this season. They started the year on a 2-0 run with victories over Robert Morris and Monmouth, but in the last two weeks Canisius has lost its last three games to Duquesne, Binghamton and No. 7 Vanderbilt by a combined five goals. The team has been in existence only since 1998. Carly Quinn is currently leading the way for Canisius with nine goals and nine assists for 18 points. Megan Oosting and Lindsey Morgan have 13 and 12 goals, respectively. Gina Molfetta has been the Griffins' top goalie, and she has a goals against average of 12.53.
Canisius is coached by Scott Teeter, who is leading his alma mater for the 10th season.

THE SERIES WITH CANISIUS
Cornell and Canisius have never met in the teams' history. Canisius has only been playing women's lacrosse since 1998.

A WIN AGAINST CANISIUS WOULD…
…give Cornell a 5-0 start to a season for the first time since 2009…extend Cornell's winning streak to six games (dating back to last year)…start the lifetime series against the Golden Griffins at 1-0…bring the Big Red's out-of-conference record to 3-0.

NATIONALLY RANKED
Thanks to a 4-0 start, the Big Red is ranked in this week's deBeer Media Poll, coming it at No. 16 with 35 points. This marks the first time all season Cornell has been ranked nationally.S

CENTURY MARK
Senior attack Jessi Steinberg scored four goals against Columbia on Saturday, going over the 100 goal mark for her career with her second score of the contest. Steinberg is now 10th all-time in team history with 102 goals. If she keeps up her current pace of 2.5 goals per game, she would finish the regular season with 129 goals, good for fourth all-time in team history.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Senior captain Cacki Helmer earned Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week on Monday for a terrific week where she had four caused turnovers and eight ground balls to go along with two Big Red victories. Heading into last week, Helmer led the nation in ground balls and caused turnovers per game.

FRIENDLY CONFINES
The Big Red has played 39 home openers in its history after Saturday's game against Columbia and holds a 25-14 record in those contests. Last season's home opener was an 11-7 loss to Rutgers, and Cornell lost two consecutive home openers before the Columbia win.

BALANCED SCORING
Last season, Jessi Steinberg led the team with 38 goals, nearly doubling Katie Kirk's second-best mark on the team of 22. So far this year, six different players have contributed at least four goals: Olivia Knotts (10), Caroline Salisbury (eight), Steinberg (10), Amanda D'Amico (six), Shannon McHugh (four) and Katie Kirk (four) are making sure the Big Red offensive attack is dangerous all over.

HATS OFF
Cornell has had a player record a hat trick in all four of its games this year. In the season opener at Rutgers, Olivia Knotts scored the game-winning goal with 52 seconds left to complete her hat trick. Amanda D'Amico got her third goal late against Harvard. Against Colgate on Wednesday, Caroline Salisbury and Sarah Hefner each earned a hat trick, and Salisbury had four goals to her name. In the home opener against Columbia, Jessi Steinberg scored four times, Katie Kirk has three goals and Knotts had her second hat trick of the season.

CLEARLY PERFECT
The Big Red went a flawless 19 of 19 on clear attempts against Colgate, marking the first time the team did not have a failed clear since April 23, 2011 against Yale. Cornell has a .957 clear percentage so far this season and had two perfect clear games (at Yale, vs. Princeton) last season.

FIRST TIME'S THE CHARM
Goalkeeper Courtney Gallagher had played in seven games for Cornell over the course of her career, but she had never started until last Wednesday at Colgate. The junior from Yardley, Pa., made seven saves in her first ever complete game and earned her first career victory. It took her just four more days to earn her second career victory when she started against Columbia on Saturday.

TEWAARATON WATCH LIST
Jessi Steinberg has been named to the 2012 Tewaaraton Award Watch list, InsideLacrosse.com announced last week. Steinberg, who led the team in scoring last season with 42 points, is now in the early pool of players who will be considered for the Tewaaraton, college lacrosse's highest individual honor. Steinberg was one of 53 players named to the list across all three divisions of women's lacrosse.

AMONG THE UNDEFEATED
Though the season is just a few weeks deep, the nation's list of undefeated teams is rapidly shrinking. Cornell, at 4-0, finds itself as one of just seven teams still undefeated on the year. The other teams are Northwestern (6-0), Massachusetts (6-0), St. Bonaventure (2-0), North Carolina (8-0), Notre Dame (4-0) and Dartmouth (3-0).

OH CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN
Four Big Red players have been named captains for the 2012 season. Senior defender Cacki Helmer, senior midfielders Katie Kirk and Shannon McHugh, and senior attack Jessi Steinberg will be leading Cornell all season.

SENIOR CLASS
The Big Red will have a strong senior class of nine players. In addition to the four players listed above as captains, goalie Kyla Dambach, midfield/attack Shannon Tierney, midfield/defense Ali O'Neil, midfield/defense Beth Halayko and attack Olivia Knotts make up an experience core at the heart of the Big Red this season.

NEW KIDS ON THE HILL
Cornell's freshman class is eight deep this year. In goal, Carly Gneiwek will see her first college season. On defense, Gabby Weintraub, Christine Ferguson and Kristen Carr are new to the roster. In the midfield, Skylar Fidel, Sarah Hefner and Claire MacManus will be gracing the roster. Lindsay Toppe is the lone freshman attack this season.

CORNELL BY STATE
The Big Red's 29 players hail from eight different states. Eight players apiece come from New York and Maryland. The lone west-coaster is Kelly Lang from Mill Valley, Calif.

LAST TIME OUT
For the second consecutive game, the Big Red jumped out to a 4-0 lead. This time it was against Ivy League rival Columbia at Schoellkopf Field. Jessi Steinberg had a had trick in the game's first 94 seconds, and the Big Red defeated the Lions 19-7. Courtney Gallagher got her second career win in goal, and freshman Carly Gniewek played the second half for her first career minutes.

CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
Against Columbia:
• Caroline Salisbury notched her 30th career point.
• Lauren Halpern reached the 10-point mark.
• Jessi Steinberg recorder her 100th career goal.

Approaching career numbers:
• Shannon McHugh needs one more ground ball to reach 60.
• Kyla Dambach's next ground ball would be her 40th.
• Ali O'Neil needs one more ground ball for her 30th.
• Olivia Knotts' next point will put her at 40.

UP NEXT
Cornell takes off for Florida for two contests in the Sunshine State. Cornell will play against Notre Dame on March 17 at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando. Three days later, the Big Red travels to Jacksonville for a contest against the Jacksonville University Dolphins.