ITHACA, N.Y. – The women's soccer will seek its second Ivy League victory in a season for the first time in 11 years, when it takes on Harvard at 1 p.m. Saturday at Berman Field. The game is part of Cornell's Youth Soccer Day.
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #12: Harvard at Cornell
DATE: Saturday, Oct. 12, 2013
TIME: 1 p.m.
SITE: Berman Field – Ithaca, N.Y. (grass surface)
2013 RECORDS: Harvard 6-3-2, 2-0 Ivy; Cornell 7-3-1, 1-1 Ivy
VIDEO: None
AUDIO: www.ustream.tv/channel/brsn-live
LIVE STATS: www.sidearmstats.com/cornell/wsoc/
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is off to its best start through 11 games since 2003, when it was 7-2-2. The Big Red has won six or its last eight games, including a 1-0 victory over Delaware State on Sunday in Dover, Del. Junior midfielder
Claire MacManus scored the game's only goal with 39 seconds remaining before halftime, with sophomore defender
Charlotte Tate drawing the assist. Senior goalkeeper
Tori Christ made two saves for her second shutout of the season. … Cornell is 1-1 in Ivy League play, coming off a hard-luck loss to Penn on Friday, Oct. 4, when the Quakers scored on a penalty kick. The Big Red started off Ivy play with a 2-0 win over Columbia on Sept. 27. … Freshman
Elizabeth Crowell has sole possession of the team scoring lead with three goals and four assists for 10 points. … Sophomore forward
Caroline Growney leads the team with four goals. She has also one assist to give her nine points, which is tied for second on the team with senior midfielder
Rachel Nichols (three goals, three assists) and freshman forward
Dempsey Banks (two goals, five assists). … Freshman
Kelsey Tierney has started six of the last seven games in goal, sporting a 4-2 record with a 0.44 goals-against average and .893 save percentage. Her save percentage and goals-against average both rank 10th in the country (as of games through Oct. 6). … The Big Red has already surpassed its goal total from last year (17).
ABOUT HARVARD
The Crimson extended its unbeaten streak to eight games Tuesday with a 1-1 draw with Boston University. Freshman forward Margaret Purce scored the tying goal in the 28th minute after the Terriers jumped out to an early lead. All six of the squad's wins came consecutively from Sept. 15 to Oct. 5 after it began the season 0-3 with losses to Cal, San Francisco and New Hampshire. … Harvard is 2-0 in Ivy play, having defeated Penn, 2-1, and Yale, 3-1. … Purce figures to be one of the favorites for Ivy League Rookie of the Year, having scored seven goals and one assist for 15 points through 11 games. She leads the team in scoring by a whopping nine points over another freshman, forward Karly Zlatic (three goals for six points). … Junior midfielder Meg Cascells-Hamby (two assists) was an All-Ivy League First Team selection last season, and junior defender Erika Garcia, sophomore midfielder Haley Washburn and junior goalkeeper Bethany Kanten were second-team selections. … Kanten (2-2, 1.67 goals-against average, .583 save percentage) has shared time in goal with freshman Lizzie Durack (2-0, 0.75, .750) and junior Cheta Emba (2-1-2, 0.22, .909).
THE SERIES WITH HARVARD
The Crimson holds a 20-3-9 lead in the all-time series, but the Big Red has proven to be a worthy test of Harvard in recent years. The lone non-win in the Crimson's march to the Ivy League title in 2011 came at the hands of Cornell when the teams settled for a 2-2 tie on Oct. 8, 2011 at Berman Field. The Big Red once again rallied late in last year's game, with senior
Mary Keroack netting the equalizer in the 75th minute to give Cornell a 1-1 tie and its only point in league play. Goalkeeper
Tori Christ made 10 saves, which was a career-high at the time. Cornell hasn't beaten Harvard since Oct. 2, 1993, when an overtime goal by Amy Duesing proved to be all the scoring.
RARE TERRITORY
A win Saturday against Harvard 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).
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.
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.
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 51 points this season, 37 have been produced by freshmen or sophomores. Senior midfielder
Rachel Nichols has nine of the 14 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 11 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 six of the seven games this season in which Cornell has scored goals.
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 last Sunday. 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
With nothing but Ivy League games ahead of it for the balance of the regular season, the Big Red hits the road to take on Yale at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19.
