ITHACA, N.Y. – The No. 14 Cornell women's lacrosse team, fresh off its most impressive win of the season, begins a three-game road trip on Sunday when it travels to Baltimore to take on Albany. The neutral-site game, played at St. Paul's School for Girls, will be the first meeting ever between the Big Red and Great Danes.

GAME INFORMATION
GAME #6: No. 14 Cornell vs. Albany
GAME TIME: Sunday, March 17, 1 p.m.
GAME SITE: St. Paul's School for Girls (Baltimore, Md.)
SERIES RECORD: Never met
LAST MEETING: Never met
2013 RECORDS: Cornell (5-0); Albany (4-2)
LIVE STATS: Live Stats
LIVE VIDEO: None

ABOUT THE BIG RED
The Big Red's midweek game against No. 7 Penn State was one of the most exciting played in recent Cornell women's lacrosse history. Though the Big Red was trailing by four goals twice in the game – including 11-7 with 15 minutes left – Cornell came from behind to tie the game at 11-11 and force overtime. In overtime, each time scored once, and after six minutes no result was decided. Penn Stated controlled the opening draw of the sudden-death overtime and took a shot off the post. That's when Kate Ivory picked up the ground ball, started a clear to Amanda D'Amico, and Cornell got the finishing goal from Caroline Salisbury. The win was Cornell's first over a ranked team since Loyola last year and improved the Big Red to 5-0 this season. Cornell now embarks on an eight-day road trip as it plays three games in three states over spring break.

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 142-92 record at Cornell and earned her 160th career win against Binghamton late last season.
 
ABOUT ALBANY
The Great Danes, based in Albany, hold a 4-2 record this season and have already faced multiple quality opponents. After opening the year with a 10-goal loss against No. 3 Florida, Albany picked up double digit wins against Niagara and Bryant. The Great Danes lost again at No. 17 Massachusetts but throttled Manhattan 19-1 and George Mason 17-5 entering this weekend's game. Albany averages 12.25 goals per game and allows just 9.00 and should be tough test for Cornell. The Great Danes have six players with double-digit points on the year including Rachael Burek's 12 goals and 12 assists. Five different Albany players have at least 10 goals. In net, Anna Berman has seen most of the playing time, holding a 6.89 goals against average and a .443 save percentage.

THE SERIES WITH ALBANY
Despite being three hours apart, the Big Red and Great Danes have never met in a women's lacrosse game. The teams have scrimmaged against one another and played during the fall, but no official games have ever matched up Cornell and Albany.

A WIN AGAINST ALBANY WOULD…
…give Cornell a 6-0 start to the season for first time since 2003…be Cornell's first win ever against the Great Danes…give Cornell its first win in a neutral site game since March 2011 …be Cornell's 10th win against current teams in America East.

CORNELL AGAINST THE AMERICA EAST CONFERENCE
Of the nine teams in the America East conference, Cornell has played four of them. The Big Red is 4-2 all-time against Vermont, 1-0 against Binghamton and Boston University, and 3-5 against New Hampshire for a combined record of 9-7. Cornell has never played Hartford, Maine, UMBC or Stony Brook.

NEUTRAL SITE IN MARYLAND
Cornell will be in a familiar situation when it takes on Albany in the Old Line State, playing its third-neutral site game in Maryland in program history. The Big Red's last neutral site game in Maryland was two years ago when it defeated No. 14 Notre Dame 6-5 in double overtime. The team also played No. 15 Denver in 2007 in College Park, Md. Cornell also played the Fighting Irish in a neutral site game last season in Orlando, Fla., but lost that contest.

OVERTIME THRILLER
The Big Red's victory against Penn State was its third overtime victory in the last three years and fourth consecutive overtime win in the last five years. Cornell has not lost an overtime game since February 2007 against Rutgers. Cornell defeated Princeton by a 13-12 score last season, knocked off Notre Dame 6-5 in 2011 and defeated Rutgers 8-7 in triple overtime in 2009.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK AGAIN
Cornell sophomore attacker Lindsay Toppe recorded 10 goals for Cornell last week, and for her outstanding performance she was again named the Ivy League's Offensive Player of the Week. Toppe has won the award in back-to-back weeks after last week getting it for the first time in her career. She had six goals against Colgate, all in the first half, as she came close to the Cornell record of eight goals in a game. She added four goals against Columbia on Saturday. Toppe is the first Big Red player to earn back-to-back weekly awards since 2002, when Jaimee Reynolds accomplished the feat twice, earning Offensive Player of the Week on April 22 and 29 and Defensive Player of the Week on March 18 and 25.

Toppe now has 29 points this season through four games, surpassing her total of 16 points from last year's 14 contests by 13 already. Though still incredibly early, Toppe is on pace to shatter the Cornell record for points in a season (74) by 13 points at the end of the regular season.

CAREER BEST FOR GALLAGHER
Since taking over the starting role this season, senior goalie Courtney Gallagher has all five wins and has played every minute for Cornell. Gallagher made nine saves on March 9 against Columbia, setting a new career high in the process. She has made 38 saves already this year and surpassed her previous season best of 34 in the Penn State game.

COMING FROM BEHIND
The Big Red built its 4-0 start to the season largely on the strength of a powerful attack and early leads. But against Penn State, Cornell never led the game until the first overtime. The Big Red trailed by as many as four goals on two separate occasions but regrouped to force overtime, showing strength in a new situation this season.

SCHOOL RECORDS IN DANGER
Lindsay Toppe and freshman Emily Tripodi both nearly threatened school records against Harvard two weekends ago. Toppe's nine points was one shy of Sarah Gur's record 10 points in a game set in 1994. Toppe and Tripodi – playing in her first game for the Big Red – had five assists apiece. The school record of six assists in a game was set four times in program history.

MUCH IMPROVED
Besides Toppe already passing her points total from her freshman season, other Cornell players seeing a larger role in the offense include Amanda D'Amico (16 points this year, 18 all of 2012), Lauren Halpern (five this year, 11 last year), Sarah Hefner (nine this year, 10 last year) and Rachel Moody (15 this year, one in two previous years combined).

BACK IN TOP FORM
Senior defender Kate Ivory missed all of her junior year with an injury, but the captain looks to be playing her best now that she's healthy. Ivory leads Cornell with 20 ground balls this year as well as 12 caused turnovers. She's on pace to blow past her career bests in both of those categories as she is 17 ground balls and 11 caused turnovers shy of her career bests.

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 2-0 on the road after defeating Columbia in New York City last weekend. Cornell's last true road loss came in April 2011 at Syracuse.

DEADLY AIM
The Big Red has scored 77 goals on 151 shots this season, good for a shooting percentage of 51.0. Since the Big Red began keeping track of shooting percentage in 1995, the team has never had a shooting percentage over 50 percent. If Cornell can keep this up, 2013 will easily be the most accurate shooting season in program history.

FRESHMEN SCORING
A large lead in the second half against Colgate allowed multiple Cornell freshmen to get into the scorebook for the first time in their careers. With time winding down in the second half, Brittany Marriott, Maddie Kiep and Jessica Schwab all scored their first career goals. Olivia Mattyasovszky also got her first career point on an assist.

NATIONALLY RANKED
Cornell moved up one spot in each of the first two weeks' ICWLA Coaches' Poll, but this week saw Cornell remain at No. 14. Cornell did enter the deBeer Media Poll this week, moving from the receiving votes category to a tie for No. 16 with Stony Brook.

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 five contests this year, Cornell is on pace for 231 goals by the end of the regular season.

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 28 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. On Wednesday against Columbia, Amanda D'Amico's five goals and three each from Lindsay Toppe and Caroline Salisbury kept the streak alive.

NATIONAL NUMBERS
Through four games, the Big Red has players ranked near the top of the country in multiple statistical categories. Lindsay Toppe, with her 8.0 points per game, is all alone in first in the nation. She is also second in assists per game (4.0) and seventh in goals per game (4.0). Claire MacManus' four ground balls per game puts her eighth in the country, and Kate Ivory is in 17th in that category (3.5). Amanda D'Amico's three goals per game has her tied for 32nd in the nation, and Ivory's 2.5 goals turnovers per game puts her 15th.
As a team, Cornell is sixth in the country with its 16.5 goals per game and is fifth in the nation with 16.00 draw controls per game.

CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
Against Penn State:
• Caroline Salisbury reached 70 career goals.
• Lindsay Toppe and Amanda D'Amico scored their 30th career goals.
• Kate Ivory recorded her 80th ground ball.
• Sarah Hefner picked up her 30th ground ball.
• Kelly Lang won her 50th draw control.
Approaching career numbers:
• Lauren Halpern's next point will be her 25th.
• Caroline Salisbury is four points shy of 100 in her career.
• Sarah Hefner's next point is her 20th and her next draw control will be her 30th.
• Kelly Lang will reach 50 ground balls when she picks up her next one.

UP NEXT
Cornell continues its spring trip with what should be a challenging contest at No. 3 North Carolina. The Big Red and Tar Heels are set to play on March 20 at 7 p.m.