ITHACA, N.Y. – The Big Red women's lacrosse team stormed out to a 1-0 record with a win at Canisius last week, but the season kicks up in intensity this weekend as Cornell opens is home slate against Ivy rival Harvard. The Big Red and Crimson square off on Schoellkopf Field on Saturday at noon.
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #2: No. 15 Cornell vs. Harvard
GAME TIME: Saturday, March 2, 2013, 12 p.m.
GAME SITE: Schoellkopf Field (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Harvard leads 22-11
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 12-6 on March 3, 2012
2012-13 RECORDS: Cornell (1-0); Harvard (0-1)
LIVE STATS:
Cornell Live Stats
LIVE VIDEO:
Redcast
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell, ranked No. 15 in the country, had a fine start to the season in a 16-10 win at Canisius last Saturday. The Big Red got an incredible seven points from sophomore
Lindsay Toppe (four goals, three assists) and seven points from junior
Rachel Moody (two goals, five assists). All of those numbers for them were career highs.
Caroline Salisbury also had four goals in the win despite being guarded tightly all game. Cornell got solid goaltending from senior
Courtney Gallagher who earned a career-best eight saves and the win. The Big Red, an Ivy League Tournament team last year that just missed the NCAA Tournament, is expecting to be competitive in the league and nationally this year.
HEAD COACH JENNY GRAAP
Jenny Graap returned to her alma mater in 1997 with one goal in mind: to build the Cornell women's lacrosse team into a championship contender. Now in her 16th year at the helm, the 2002 Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association Coach of the Year and 2006 Inside Lacrosse Magazine and IWLCA Northeast Coach of the Year has developed the Big Red women's lacrosse program into one of the most successful in the nation. She has posted a 129-89 record at Cornell and earned her 160th career win against Binghamton late last season.
ABOUT HARVARD
The Crimson, based in Cambridge, Mass., have a 0-1 record this year as it lost to Stanford in its season opener last weekend. Stanford came away with an 18-13 victory in that game, playing on the west coast. The Crimson is led on offense so far by Alexis Nicolia, whose five goals and one assist give her six points on the season. Micaela Cyr and Kyleigh Keating each have four points. On the defensive side, goalie Annie Meyjes has three ground balls while six different players caused one turnover. In goal, Meyjes played all 60 minutes against Stanford and made 14 saves while giving up those 18 goals.
Harvard is coached by Lisa Miller, now in her sixth year with the team.
THE SERIES WITH HARVARD
The Big Red and Crimson are long-time rivals, having played 33 times over the years. Harvard holds a dominant edge in the all-time series, doubling Cornell's win total, but the Big Red claimed last year's contest by a 12-6 score.
Amanda D'Amico had three goals in that one in Cambridge while
Jessi Steinberg,
Olivia Knotts,
Shannon McHugh and
Caroline Salisbury all had two. In net,
Kyla Dambach made eight saves.
A WIN AGAINST HARVARD WOULD…
…give Cornell a 2-0 start to the season for the second consecutive year…improve Cornell to 1-0 in Ivy League play for the second consecutive year…be the team's second consecutive win on home turf.
NATIONALLY RANKED
After spending the first week in the national poll at No. 16, the Big Red jumped up one spot this week to No. 15. Cornell continues to receive votes in the deBeer Media Poll.
TEWAARATON WATCH LIST
Senior
Caroline Salisbury has been named to the Tewaaraton Trophy Watch List, the Tewaaraton Foundation announced late last week. Salisbury was named to the All-Ivy second team in 2012 and was Cornell's second-leading point scorer. A talented player with a powerful shot, Salisbury is one of 51 players across all divisions of college women's lacrosse to make the initial watch list.
LUCKY NUMBER SEVEN
Lindsay Toppe and
Rachel Moody each scored seven points in the season opener at Canisius. Both were career highs. Toppe had four goals and three assists, while Moody added two goals and five assists. Seven points was the single-game best for any member of the Big Red roster last year when
Jessi Steinberg had three goals and four assists at Jacksonville. Cornell never had two players record seven points in the same game last season. Toppe and Moody were named to the Ivy League's weekly Honor Roll for their point-scoring outbursts.
SWEET CAROLINE
A breakout star on offense last season, Cornell's
Caroline Salisbury returns as a team captain for her senior year. A walk-on when she first arrived, Salisbury started her career slow but erupted for 44 goals last year to tie for the team lead. She scored a goal in every game last season but the opener at Rutgers, but even in that game she had four assists. She scored a hat trick in nine consecutive games to end the season.
ROAD WARRIORS
Last season brought success on the road, as the Big Red held a perfect 7-0 record in true road games. The only losses away from Ithaca came in neutral-site contests against Notre Dame in Orlando, Fla., over Spring Break and against Dartmouth in the Ivy League Tournament in Philadelphia. So far this year, the trend has continued. The Big Red is 1-0 on the road after defeating Canisius in Buffalo. Cornell's last true road loss came in April 2011 at Syracuse.
SCORCHING SCORING PACE
The Big Red was stellar on offense all of 2012, posting the second-highest goal total in program history. The team finished with 227 goals, just one shy of the 2002 team's 228. Cornell also was just four points shy of the team record (311, also in 2002) and 14 assists behind the team record (94 in 2000). Through one contest this year, Cornell is ahead of last year's pace by almost two goals.
HATS OFF
Cornell had a player record a hat trick in all of its games last year, and its streak has now been extended to 24 consecutive games with a hat trick. The last time Cornell did not have at least one player with three goals in a game was on March 23, 2011 at North Carolina. Last weekend,
Caroline Salisbury and
Lindsay Toppe each had four goals to continue the streak.
2013 CAPTAINS
The Big Red will be represented by three captains this season: senior attacker
Caroline Salisbury, senior defender
Kate Ivory and junior midfielder
Chelsea Rowe.
BACK ON THE FIELD
Four returning Big Red players this season did not see any time last year due to injury but should player larger roles this year. Defender and captain
Kate Ivory, defender
Meg Helmer, defender
Christine Ferguson and attacker
Rachel Moody are all expected to see plenty of playing time in 2013.
FRESH PERSPECTIVE
A large incoming class of 10 freshmen joins the Cornell roster this season. On the attacking side,
Olivia Mattyasovszky,
Jessica Schwab and
Emily Tripodi are new. The freshman midfielders are
Abby Hanson,
Maddie Kiep,
Taylor Kotas,
Brittany Marriott and
Shelby McNeilly. Rounding out the freshman class are defenders
Greer McBeth and
Catherine Moubayed.
NATIONAL NUMBERS
Though just one game has been played, some Big Red players find themselves near the top of the national rankings in multiple categories. Junior attack
Rachel Moody leads the nation with her 5.00 assists per game. Moody and
Lindsay Toppe are fourth with 7.00 points per game. Toppe and
Caroline Salisbury are in eighth with 4.00 goals per game.
As a team, Cornell is fourth in the country with 18.00 draw controls per game and is eighth in the country with 16.00 goals per game.
CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
Against Canisius:
Approaching career numbers:
UP NEXT
Cornell continues a short two-game homestand when Colgate comes to town on Wednesday afternoon. The Big Red and Raiders have their first draw at 4 p.m.
