ITHACA, N.Y. – Entering the weekend on a two-game slide, the Cornell men's soccer team returns to Berman Field on Saturday afternoon after two weeks of road games and will play host to Ivy League foe Harvard, as both teams look for their first win in conference play.

GAME INFORMATION
GAME #11: Cornell vs. Harvard
DATE & TIME:  Saturday, Oct. 12 at 4 p.m.
SITE: Berman Field (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD:  Harvard leads 38-22-15
LAST MEETING: Oct. 6, 2012; Cornell won 3-1
2013 RECORDS: Cornell (6-2-2, 0-1-0 Ivy League), Harvard (1-6-2, 0-1-0 Ivy League)
LIVE STATS | LIVE AUDIO
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell's Ivy League title defense got off to a shaky start last Saturday with a 1-0 loss to Penn in Philadelphia, after giving up a goal in the 81st minute. The team has been plagued by missed opportunities throughout 2013, having outshot all but one opponent so far this season but only managing 10 goals in 10 games. Senior defenders Patrick Slogic and Jake Rinow are tied atop the team's leaderboard with two goals and two assists for six points apiece.
 
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 39-20-18 record after last weekend's loss to Penn in the Ivy League opener. He played soccer for four years at Clemson and then spent time professionally in the United States and Poland.
 
ABOUT HARVARD
Harvard's lone victory of the season so far came against Massachusetts on Sept. 22. The Crimson edged the Minutemen 2-1 at home, thanks to a Kevin Harrington header in the 80th minute. Harvard does not have a multi-goal scorer on its roster heading in to Saturday's contest at Berman Field. Seven members of the Crimson have one goal; senior defender Ross Friedman leads the team with four points on four assists. In its Ivy League opener against Yale, Harvard conceded a goal in the 90th minute to fall 2-1.
 
THE SERIES WITH HARVARD
Cornell and Harvard first met in 1909 with the Big Red taking a 2-1 victory. Since then, the teams have played 74 more times with the Crimson owning the series lead at 38-22-15. Cornell, however, is unbeaten in the team's last four meetings at 2-0-2. Harvard has not beat the Big Red since handing the team a 2-0 defeat in 2008. Cornell only earned one win that season.
 
LAST TIME OUT
On Oct. 6, 2012 Cornell beat Harvard 3-1 in Cambridge, Mass. to improve to 10-0-0 on the season and 2-0 in the Ivy League. Stephen Reisert got the Big Red on the board first early, while Patrick Slogic and Conor Goepel recorded the game-winning and insurance tallies in the second half to seal the win. Oliver White was the goal scorer for Harvard.

YOUTH SOCCER DAY
The Cornell soccer programs are hosting Youth Soccer Day on Saturday just outside the west entrance to Berman Field, with activities for kids taking place between the completion of the women's game (at approximately 3 p.m.) and the start of the men's game (4 p.m.). Planned activities include customizing free T-shirts with fabric markers, soccer-themed games and activities, poster-making, giveaways and post-game autographs with players. The event is free. Admission to the women's game is free for everyone and in cooperation with Cornell's Employee Celebration, the men's game will feature free admission to all children and to all adults wearing red. 

242 MINUTES
The Big Red has not scored a goal since Patrick Slogic's header in the 18th minute of the team's 1-0 win over Buffalo and has dropped two one-goal decisions since. The last time Cornell had lost back-to-back games was October 2010 when the team suffered similar one-goal losses at the hands of Yale and Lafayette. The 2010 season was all the last time the Big Red dropped its conference opener.
 
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 will take on Colgate on Berman Field Tuesday Oct. 15 for the team's last non-conference contest of the 2013 season. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.