The women's soccer team hits the road this weekend, seeking to even its Ivy League record when it takes on Yale at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Reese Stadium. Cornell (7-4-1, 1-2 Ivy) has won six of its last nine games and is looking to secure its first winning season since 2002.
 
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #13: Cornell at Yale
DATE: Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013
TIME: 6:30 p.m.
SITE: Reese Stadium – New Haven, Conn. (artificial surface)
2013 RECORDS: Cornell 7-4-1, 1-2 Ivy; Yale 6-5, 1-2 Ivy
VIDEO: www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com
AUDIO: www.ustream.tv/channel/brsn-live
LIVE STATS: http://yale.prestosports.com/links/nk3o2k

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is off to its best start through 12 games since 2003, when it was 7-3-2. The Big Red has won six of its last nine games, but dropped a 7-2 decision to Ivy League-leading Harvard last Saturday at Berman Field. Forwards scored both Cornell goals, with freshman Meera Marhoefer netting her first collegiate goal and sophomore Caroline Growney tallying her team-leading fifth goal of the season. Add on her one assist, and Growney has sole possession of the team scoring lead with 11 points. … Cornell is 1-2 in Ivy League play. Its other league games were a hard-luck 1-0 loss to Penn on Oct. 4, when the Quakers scored on a penalty kick, and a 2-0 win over Columbia on Sept. 27. That victory was the Big Red's first in the Ivy League since a 1-0 win over Yale on Oct. 16, 2010. … Cornell has four players with at least 10 points for the first time since 1995. One point behind Growney with 10 points are freshman midfielder Elizabeth Crowell (three goals, four assists), senior midfielder Rachel Nichols (three goals, four assists) and freshman forward Dempsey Banks (two goals, six assists). … Freshman Kelsey Tierney has started seven of the last eight games in goal, sporting a 4-3 record with a 1.29 goals-against average and .762 save percentage.
 
ABOUT YALE
The Bulldogs defeated Marist on Monday, 4-0, to break a two-game losing streak and avoid going below .500 for the first time this season. Yale started the season with victories in four of its first five, including matchups against Stony Brook, Mass.-Lowell, Towson and Hartford. The Bulldogs then started their Ivy season with a bang when sophomore forward Paula Hagopian score in overtime to lead Yale to a come-from-behind 3-2 win over defending champion Princeton on Sept. 28. The Bulldogs have since dropped league contests against Harvard, 3-1, and Dartmouth, 1-0. … Junior forward Melissa Gavin has accounted for nearly half of the team's goals this season, leading the team in scoring with nine goals and three assists for 21 points. Hagopian has two goals and four assists for eight points. Junior Frannie Coxe has six assists, which is tied for the league lead with Cornell's Dempsey Banks. Freshman Geneva Decker has three goals in seven games. … Yale has used two goalies this season, with sophomore Rachel Ames (4-4, 2.09 goals-against average, .768 save percentage) seeing the lion's share of time in Ivy games so far. Junior Elise Wilcox (2-1, 1.60, .805) recorded her first shutout Monday in the win over Marist.
 
THE SERIES WITH YALE
The all-time series is extremely close, with Yale taking a 16-15 lead after an own goal off a corner kick allowed the visiting Bulldogs to leave Berman Field with a 1-0 victory on Oct. 13, 2012. Though there have been no ties between the squads in 32 meetings, six of the games have gone to overtime — including a 2-1 Yale triumph on Oct. 15, 2011 in the teams' last meeting at Reese Stadium.
 
RARE TERRITORY
A win Saturday against Yale would give the Big Red two Ivy League victories in a season for the first time since 2002. It would also guarantee Cornell has a winning season for the first time since 2002 (9-6-2).
 
HEAD COACH PATRICK FARMER
Now in his 21st season as a head coach in the NCAA, Patrick Farmer is in his second season 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 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 third season as an assistant coach, and Dwight Hornibrook is in his second season as an assistant coach after serving as the head coach of SUNY Cortland men's soccer for eight years. Brett Sarsfield has also joined the staff as a volunteer assistant coach.
 
HAPPY TO HELP
Senior midfielder Rachel Nichols is tied for sixth in program history for career assists. She set up Caroline Growney for the Big Red's second goal against Harvard on Saturday, giving her 13 assists in her four years on East Hill. Nichols has the rare distinction of having played for a national team when she competed for The Philippines in tournaments over the last two years.
 
AND THE WINNER IS …
Freshman goalkeeper Kelsey Tierney was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week on Sept. 23 after stopping 11 of 12 shots on target the previous week, while also notching her first collegiate shutout in a 2-0 victory over Binghamton on Sept. 18. It was the second consecutive week that the Big Red captured the league honor, with freshman Elizabeth Crowell being named both the Ivy League Player of the Week and the Rookie of the Week on Sept. 16 after a dominating performance of two goals and three assists in games against Marist and Albany. Crowell became the first Big Red player with three assists in a game since Amy Snow on Sept. 15, 1991. She was also the program's first Ivy League Player of the Week since Maneesha Chitanvis on Oct. 8, 2012, and the first Rookie of the Week since senior Mary Keroack on Sept. 6, 2010.
 
SPOT DUTY
Senior midfielder Rachel Nichols' overtime goal Sept. 13 against Marist was the Big Red's first converted penalty kick since Sept. 5, 2010, when Caedran Harvey scored her first collegiate goal from the spot in a 7-0 win over Delaware State. Cornell had not been awarded a penalty kick since Sept. 14, 2011 in a game against Binghamton. The trend continued Sept. 22 against NJIT, when sophomore forward Caroline Growney drew a foul in the box and also scored on her first collegiate penalty kick.
 
YOUTH IS SERVED
Of Cornell's 57 points this season, 42 have been produced by freshmen or sophomores. Senior midfielder Rachel Nichols has 10 of the 15 points via upperclassmen, plus junior forward Kerry Schubert and junior midfielder have one goal apiece, and senior forward Rachel Schlobohm has one assist.
 
QUICK STARTERS
Cornell has had great success in the 31 season openers in the program's history, picking up a 17-10-4 mark in the first game of the season. That trend was reignited this season, when a 1-0 victory over Sacred Heart gave the Big Red its first win in a season debut since defeating Oakland (Mich.) in 2008.
 
BLANK YOU VERY MUCH
Senior goalkeeper Tori Christ recorded the first shutout of her collegiate career on Sept. 6 at Sacred Heart. She needed to make just two saves to record the shutout in her 16th collegiate start. Tending goal runs in the family for Christ, whose father, Philip, played goalie for the Northeastern hockey team in his collegiate days and currently serves as a practice goalie for the NHL's Buffalo Sabres. Freshman Kelsey Tierney then posted her first shutout on Sept. 18 vs. Binghamton. The duo has also combined on two shutouts, giving the team six clean sheets through just 12 games.
 
ALOHA!
Freshman forward Dempsey Banks needed less than five minutes to record the first point of her collegiate career, notching the primary assist on Kerry Schubert's goal Sept. 6 at Sacred Heart. Banks joins the Big Red from Honolulu, Hawaii, coming from the same strong Punahou School and Leahi SC programs that produced Jayann Gabrio '13, a key central defender for the Big Red over her collegiate career. Banks has been on the scoresheet in seven of the eight games this season in which Cornell has scored goals, and her six assists are tied for the Ivy League lead and rank 49th in the country.
 
GOOD THINGS COME IN THREES
The Big Red has tri-captains for the fifth time in seven years with seniors Tori Christ and Rachel Nichols, and junior Claire MacManus wearing the armbands. Christ is the Big Red's first goalkeeper to serve as a two-time captain since Sherrie Chocola in 1985 and 1986.
 
SHE'S HONORED
Junior midfielder Claire MacManus was recognized for being one of the top defensive midfielders in the Ivy League last season, when she was tabbed as an All-Ivy Second Team selection. One of the team's best aerial threats, MacManus has now scored one goal in each of her three seasons on East Hill. Her latest strike was the game-winner against Delaware State on Oct. 6. MacManus is also a midfielder on the women's lacrosse team.
 
BREAKDOWN
The Big Red is carrying a roster of 25 players this season, which is the smallest since it carried 25 in 2009. While there are six seniors on this year's team, the most-represented class is the freshmen. Patrick Farmer's first recruiting class included eight freshmen, plus the addition of one transfer and two walk-ons.

NATIONAL APPEAL
The Big Red has 12 different states and China represented on the team roster, with its home state of New York claiming seven players. Cornell has three players that hail from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, two each from California and Virginia, and single representatives from Hawaii, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico and Oregon. Dana Daniels comes from China, but joins the Big Red via The Bullis School in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

UP NEXT
The Big Red will hold its Senior Day at 1 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 27 in a game against Brown at Berman Field. During the game, there will be a ceremony to honor the team's six seniors – Tori Christ, Mary Keroack, Kasia Jandura-Cessna, Andi McIntosh, Rachel Nichols and Rachel Schlobohm.