ITHACA, N.Y. – A tough, one-goal loss at home to No. 8 Penn soured last weekend, but the No. 18/17 Big Red women's lacrosse team has a chance to get right back in the win column when it takes on No. 16/19 Princeton this weekend. The game is set for a first draw at 1 p.m. on Princeton Field.
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #9: No. 18/17 Cornell vs. No. 16/19 Princeton
GAME TIME: Saturday, March 31, 1 p.m.
GAME SITE: Class of 1952 Stadium (Princeton, N.J.)
SERIES RECORD: Princeton leads 30-3
LAST MEETING: Princeton won 15-10 on April 2, 2011
2011-12 RECORDS: Cornell (6-2, 2-1 Ivy League); Princeton (4-3, 2-0 Ivy League)
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ABOUT THE BIG RED
The goals have come early and often for the Cornell women's lacrosse team this season, with
Jessi Steinberg and
Olivia Knotts leading the way on offense. Cornell has scored double digits in seven straight contests and remains in the top half of the Ivy League with a 2-1 conference record. A senior-heavy team with 10 returning starters, Cornell has already matched its entire win total from the 2011 campaign.
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 PRINCETON
The Tigers, based in Princeton, N.J., are the defending Ivy League champs who began the season ranked No. 8 in the country and have dropped in the polls slightly. Still coming in at Nos. 16 and 19 this week, Princeton holds a 4-3 mark but is unblemished in the Ivy League. Princeton's three losses have come by a combined five goals, including one-goal defeats at the hands of Rutgers and Johns Hopkins. The Tigers have yet to face an in-league ranked opponent this year. Jaci Gassaway tops the Tigers with 20 goals and nine assists for 29 points, while Cassie Pyle has also recorded 20 goals. Goalkeeper Annie Woehling has a 7.91 goals against average and a .429 save percentage.
Chris Sailer, a 1981 graduate of Harvard, is a US Lacrosse National Hall of Fame member in her 26th year leading the Tigers.
THE SERIES WITH PRINCETON
Historically, Princeton has dominated the series against Cornell. The teams have met 33 times, and Cornell has come away with wins in just three years: 1985, 1988 and 2010. Last season, Princeton defeated the Big Red 15-10 in Ithaca, largely thanks to a seven-goal run that spanned from the end of the first half through the start of the second.
Jessi Steinberg had four goals for Cornell in that game.
A WIN AGAINST PRINCETON WOULD…
…give Cornell its fourth win all-time against the Tigers…improve the Big Red to 2-0 after a loss…Bring Cornell to 3-1 in Ivy League play for the first time since 2006…keep the Big Red perfect in road games this year (5-0)…be the team's first win over a ranked opponent since the season finale last year.
FAST STARTS
The Big Red has been making a habit of beginning games with early leads. In five of the team's eight contests this season, Cornell has taken at least a three-goal lead before the other team has been able to score. Cornell has held leads of 6-0, 5-1, 4-0 (twice) and 3-0 (twice) this year and has held on to win five of those six games. Only Notre Dame was able to take a multi-goal lead on the Big Red before it managed a goal.
SCORING STREAKS
Through eight games this season, four Cornell players have scored a point in every game.
Jessi Steinberg,
Olivia Knotts and
Caroline Salisbury have each tallied at least one point in eight contests.
Shannon McHugh, who missed the Columbia game on March 10, has scored in all seven games she has played.
FREE POSITION SUCCESS
The Big Red has taken 43 free position shots this season and converted on 22 of them, giving the team a 51 percent success rate. Cornell is on pace to finish the season with over 50 percent conversion on free position shots for the first time since 2007.
GOALS, GOALS, GOALS
The Big Red's 22-goal outburst at Jacksonville last week tied the team's all-time record, set on May 1, 1994 against Rutgers. Cornell had scored 20 goals in a game just twice in its history before this season, but after the Jacksonville contest the Big Red had scored 20 goals twice in eight days. Cornell also recorded a 21-goal effort against Canisius on March 13.
Cornell has 15.71 goals per game which would put it seventh in the nation.
Cornell is just 11 goals shy of its 131 total goals from all of 2011 and has already surpassed its 2010 total of 119 goals by one with seven regular season games to go.
OFFENSIVE DEFENSEMAN
Besides all the usual suspects getting in on the scoring against Jacksonville on March 20, Cornell senior defenseman
Cacki Helmer also scored. The goal, just the second of her four-year career, came on her first shot of the season. With time winding down in the first half, Helmer sprinted across the restraining line, headed right for the net, and fired past the Dolphins keeper to give Cornell a 12-7 lead at halftime.
CENTURY MARK
Senior attack
Jessi Steinberg scored four goals against Columbia on March 10, going over the 100-goal mark for her career with her second score of the contest. If she keeps up her current pace of 3.38 goals per game, she would finish the regular season with 143 goals, just one behind Jaimee Reynolds for first all-time in team history.
NATIONALLY RANKED
Cornell remains ranked in this week's deBeer Media Poll, coming in one spot higher than last week at No. 17. The Big Red is also still ranked nationally in the IWLCA Coaches' Poll for the second consecutive week, placing 18th in the country just two spots behind Princeton.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Senior captain
Jessi Steinberg earned Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week on March 19 for a 12-point week featuring nine goals and three assists. The award was the second of her career and the team's second weekly award of the season.
Senior captain
Cacki Helmer earned Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week on March 12 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.
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. Already this season, Steinberg is at 27 goals but
Olivia Knotts is one shy of Kirk's second-best 22 from last year. So far this year, nine different players have contributed at least six goals: Steinberg (27),
Olivia Knotts (21),
Caroline Salisbury (16),
Amanda D'Amico (nine),
Shannon McHugh (nine),
Katie Kirk (seven),
Lindsay Toppe (seven),
Lauren Halpern (six) and
Chelsea Rowe (six) are making sure the Big Red attack is dangerous all over. Last season, only six players all year reached the five-goal mark.
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 March 7,
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. Against Canisius last Tuesday, Steinberg scored five goals while Salisbury had three. In the Notre Dame contest, both Knots (five) and Steinberg (four) eclipsed the three-goal mark.
At Jacksonville, Steinberg (three), Knotts (four) and D'Amico (three) continued the impressive streak that has now lasted nearly half of the 15-game season. Steinberg also kept the streak alive against Penn when she scored five goals for the second time this year.
CLEARLY PERFECT
The Big Red went a flawless 19 of 19 on clear attempts against Colgate on March 7, marking the first time the team did not have a failed clear since April 23, 2011 against Yale. Cornell has a .889 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 March 7 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 March 10.
NATIONAL NUMBERS
Through last weekend's games, Cornell ranks near the top of the country in multiple statistical categories. The Big Red's scoring offense of 15 goals per game puts it tied for ninth in the country with Vermont. Cornell's 15.00 draw controls places the team in 11th nationally. Cornell's 9.75 goals allowed per game has it in 25th in the country.
Individually,
Jessi Steinberg sits at eighth in the country with her 4.88 points per game.
Olivia Knotts is tied for 25th in that category with 4.13. Steinberg's 3.38 goals per game also places her tied for ninth nationally in that category.
Courtney Gallagher's 9.49 goals against average makes her 23rd nationally in that statistic, and
Cacki Helmer's 1.75 caused turnovers per outing puts her in 18th. Helmer is also tied for ninth with 3.25 ground balls.
IVY STATISTICS
The Big Red currently leads the Ivy League in goals per game with 15.00 and is second in assists per game with 6.50. The Big Red's 21.50 points per game ranks the team first in the league. Cornell also takes more shots per game (32.12) and wins more draws (15.00) than any other team in the league.
Individually,
Jessi Steinberg is first among the Ancient Eight with 3.38 goals per game, and teammate
Olivia Knotts is sixth at 2.62. Steinberg, Knotts and
Caroline Salisbury all tied for fifth with 1.50 assists per game.
Cacki Helmer is first in the Ivy League with 3.25 ground balls per game, and
Shannon McHugh's 3.71 draw controls per game puts her in third among Ivy competition. Helmer is also second in the conference with 1.75 caused turnovers per game.
TEWAARATON WATCH LIST
Jessi Steinberg has been named to the 2012 Tewaaraton Award Watch list, InsideLacrosse.com announced before the season. 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.
LAST TIME OUT
The Big Red stormed out to a 3-0 lead at home against Penn on Saturday by controlling possession early, but the Quakers fought back to take a lead at halftime. The visitors went on to win 11-10 in a hard-fought game from both sides.
Jessi Steinberg led the scoring for Cornell with five goals, and
Courtney Gallagher topped the Big Red goaltending with five saves.
CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
Against Penn:
Approaching career numbers:
UP NEXT
Cornell continues Ivy League play with an April 7 matchup against Dartmouth in Schoellkopf Field. The Big Red and Big Green will play at 5 p.m.
