ITHACA, N.Y. – Men's soccer will look to rebound from a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to Niagara last week and begin its Ivy League title defense on Saturday, Oct. 5 with the first conference game of the season at Penn.

GAME INFORMATION
GAME #10: Cornell at Penn
DATE & TIME:  Saturday, Oct. 5 at 7 p.m.
SITE: Rhodes Field (Philadelphia, Pa.)
SERIES RECORD:  Penn leads 59-30-13
LAST MEETING: Sept. 29, 2012; Cornell won 3-2
2013 RECORDS*: Cornell (6-1-2, 0-0 Ivy League), Penn (2-6, 0-0 Ivy League)
LIVE STATS | IVY LEAGUE DIGITAL NETWORK
 
*Records accurate before games on Oct. 2.

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is coming off a 1-1-1 week during which it scored only one goal and was plagued with missed scoring opportunities, particularly within the last 45 minutes.  Heading in to Ivy League play last season the team had already amassed 23 goals, compared to 10 goals in the eight games prior to this Saturday's matchup. Cornell has not scored more than two goals in a game so far this season.
 
HEAD COACH JARO ZAWISLAN
After taking over a program that was 1-15 the season before his appointment as head coach, Jaro Zawislan has steadily improved men's soccer at Cornell; transforming an eighth-place team into Ivy League Champions and coaching the Big Red to the program's best season in nearly two decades. Zawislan, a native of Poland, now holds a 39-19-18 record after last weekend's split in Western New York. He played soccer for four years at Clemson and then spent time professionally in the United States and Poland.
 
ABOUT PENN
Despite shutting out Stony Brook and Sacred Heart in their first two games, the Quakers have struggled in the early goings of 2013. Four of the team's six losses have been by one goal, including two losses in overtime. Penn has also been shut out twice, once by No. 11 Georgetown and most recently by Florida International. Junior midfielder/forward Duke Lacroix leads Penn with three goals so far this season.
 
THE SERIES WITH PENN
The Big Red and Quakers have been facing off on the opening weekend of Ivy League play every season since 2008.  The series is even at 2-2-1 in those years, although Penn has a significant advantage in the series record since the two teams first met in 1908. Cornell has won the last two meetings between the teams. Senior midfield Stephen Reisert tallied the game-winner against the Quakers last season in the Big Red's 3-2 victory on Berman Field.
 
#IVYDIGITAL
Saturday's game will be streamed on the new Ivy League Digital Network. The link to purchase the game will be accessible in the minutes leading up to the scheduled start time. To purchase an Ivy League Digital Network pass go to http://www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com/packages and select the package of your choice. Purchasing a school day pass will allow you to view Big Red men's soccer on Saturday and test out the network for only $9.95.
 
STREAK SNAPPED
Sunday's loss to Niagara snapped the Big Red's 25-game non-conference regular season unbeaten streak which dated back to September 2011. Coincidentally, the last loss the Big Red suffered in non-conference play also came at the hands of the Purple Eagles, who beat Cornell 3-1 on Sept. 2, 2011 on Berman Field to open the season. The Big Red has not lost back-to-back games since late in the 2010 season.

HEAD STRONG
The one goal the Big Red tallied last weekend came on a Patrick Slogic header inside the box. Six of Slogic's seven career goals thus far for the Big Red have been scored when the six-foot-six defender uses his head.
 
STEPPING UP
Each of Cornell's 10 goals this season have been scored by either a junior or senior, and only one of those was scored by a true forward when Devin Morgan notched the first goal of the year against Detroit Mercy. The sophomore and freshman classes have combined for one point; a Sebastian Scales assist. The younger members of the Big Red squad will need to step up in Ivy League play if the team plans on breaking its current scoring slide.  
 
BACK TO BACK TO BACK
The Big Red opened the 2013 season with three straight overtime games; the last time a Cornell men's soccer team played in three straight games needing more than 90 minutes was in September 2006 against Buffalo, Boston University and Columbia.  

SENIOR LEADERSHIP
For the second season in a row the Big Red has three captains, as Jake Rinow, Patrick Slogic and Benjamin Williams have assumed the role for their senior seasons. Slogic is coming off a First Team All-Ivy season in 2012 and was named to the MAC Hermann watch list and as a contender for the Senior CLASS Award in the weeks prior to the 2013 season.
 
FRESH FACES
Cornell added 13 newcomers to the roster for the 2013 campaign, many of whom will challenge the veteran players for playing time throughout the year. Goalkeeper Evan King, midfielder Madison Heck and midfield/forward hybrid Sebastian Scales all come to East Hill from Eastside FC in Washington State.
 
AIN'T THAT AMERICA
Nearly all of the players on this season's roster hail from one of 12 states, as California, New York and Washington each claim claiming four players. The Big Red has three players from New Jersey, two from both Colorado and Indiana and one each from Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan and Nebraska. Freshman JJ Black hails from Cambridge, England.  
 
UP NEXT
The Big Red returns home to Berman Field on Saturday Oct. 12 to host Harvard at 4 p.m.