The women's soccer team hosts its first Ivy League contest of the season under the lights on Friday at Berman Field, when it takes on Penn at 7 p.m. The game marks the midway point of the team's season-high three-game homestand.
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #10: Penn at Cornell
DATE: Friday, Sept. 28, 2012
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Ithaca, N.Y. — Charles F. Berman Field
2012 RECORDS: Penn 4-4 (1-0 Ivy League); Cornell 0-9 (0-1)
LAST MEETING: Penn won, 2-1, on Sept. 30, 2011 in Philadelphia
ALL-TIME SERIES RECORD: Penn leads, 14-6-1
LIVE STATS: http://sidearmstats.com/cornell/wsoc/scoreboard.aspx
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is seeking its first victory of the season after suffering a pair of one-goal losses last weekend. In its Ivy League opener Friday at Columbia, the Big Red couldn't overcome a one-goal deficit created by a Lions goal in the eighth minute. Returning to non-league play Sunday at home against Niagara, Cornell got a goal from junior
Alysse Godino to tie the game in the latter portion of the second half, but the Purple Eagles were able to produce the winning goal with 4.3 remaining in regulation time. Senior forward
Xandra Hompe leads the team in scoring with two goals and an assist for five points. Senior defender
Jayann Gabrio has two goals on free kicks for four points, and senior forward
Maneesha Chitanvis has a goal and an assist for three points. Junior
Tori Christ has started all nine games in goal so far for the Big Red.
ABOUT PENN
The Quakers — who won the Ivy League in 2010, then finished second last year — made a statement with a 1-0 victory over Harvard in the schools' league opener on Sept. 21. But Penn's season hasn't been flawless, including shutout losses to Marist, Drexel, Boise State and nationally ranked California. The squad has balanced scoring, with all seven of its goals being tallied by different players. Kerry Scalora, Brianna Rano, Laura Oliver, Kathryn Barth and Elissa Berdini are all tied for the team lead in scoring with three points on one goal and an assist apiece. The Quakers return two first-team All-Ivy selections from last season — senior midfielder Erin Beck and classmate Sarah Banks, who has been the team's exclusive goalkeeper to date.
THE SERIES WITH PENN
The Big Red played well last season at the Quakers' Rhodes Field, but surrendered a pair of second-half goals to lose, 2-1. Sophomore
Claire MacManus — who hails from nearby Rosemont, Pa., which is near Penn's base of Philadelphia — scored her first collegiate goal for Cornell on a header after a feed from
Abigail Apistolas '12. It was the 13th consecutive time Penn has defeated Cornell in the series. The Big Red won the first six meetings between the teams from 1991-96.
HEAD COACH PATRICK FARMER
Now in his 20th season as a head coach in the NCAA,
Patrick Farmer has been 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.
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 compete in other varsity sports on East Hill. Senior forward
Xandra Hompe is also a member of the women's hockey team, which has advanced to the NCAA Women's Frozen Four in each of the last three seasons, and sophomore
Claire MacManus is a midfielder with the women's lacrosse team. Both Hompe (9) and MacManus (16) wear 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 closes out the non-league portion of its schedule at 7 p.m. Tuesday against Lafayette. The Big Red then hits the road for a Saturday matinee at defending Ivy League champion Harvard.
