ITHACA, N.Y. – The Big Red women's lacrosse team, returning home after a three-game road stretch, will face another challenging Ivy League opponent this weekend when Princeton comes to Schoellkopf Field. The No. 11 Big Red and the Tigers will square off on Saturday at 3 p.m. as part of Cornell's annual “Shootout Cancer” game.
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #9: No. 11 Cornell vs. Princeton
GAME TIME: Saturday, March 30, 3 p.m.
GAME SITE: Schoellkopf Field (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Princeton leads 30-4
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 13-12 (OT) on March 31, 2013
2013 RECORDS: Cornell (6-2, 2-1 Ivy League); Princeton (5-3, 2-0 Ivy League)
LIVE STATS:
Cornell Live Stats
LIVE VIDEO:
Redcast
ABOUT THE BIG RED
The Big Red showed incredible resilience over the weekend at Penn, tying the game with the Quakers after being down by seven goals early in the second half. Despite trailing 11-4, Cornell went on a 7-0 run in the final 26 minutes of the second half to tie the game at 11-11 and force overtime. Once in overtime, though, Cornell could not get the goal it needed to claim an improbable victory. Penn won the game 12-11 in the extra period, giving the Big Red its second consecutive loss and its first in Ivy League play. Cornell currently sits in second place in the Ivy League and is hoping to earn another berth in the Ivy League Tournament at the end of this season.
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 145-94 record at Cornell and earned her 160th career win against Binghamton late last season.
ABOUT PRINCETON
The Tigers, based in Princeton, N.J., have a 5-3 record on the season and are 2-0 in Ivy play entering the weekend. Princeton most recently is coming off a midweek win against Columbia by an 18-7 margin, and the Tigers also knocked off then-No. 12 Johns Hopkins last Saturday. Princeton's two losses came against a top-10 Virginia squad and an unranked Rutgers team. At the start of the week, Princeton was eighth in the country in caused turnovers per game with 11.00.
Sophomore Erin McMunn was named the Ivy League's Co-Offensive Player of the Week on Monday, and she leads the Tigers' offense with 21 goals and 15 assists for 36 points. Five other players on the roster also have at least 10 goals. Princeton has split time between goalies Annie Woehling and Caroline Franke, and both have a goals against average just under 10.00.
THE SERIES WITH PRINCETON
Historically, Princeton has dominated the series against Cornell. The teams have met 34 times, and Cornell has come away with wins in just four years: 1985, 1988, 2010 and 2012. Last season's win, a 13-12 thriller in overtime, came thanks to four goals from
Jessi Steinberg and three each from
Caroline Salisbury,
Katie Kirk and
Shannon McHugh. The teams were tied at 7-7 at halftime, each scored four goals in the second half, and Cornell got two to Princeton's one in the overtime period.
A WIN AGAINST PRINCETON WOULD…
…be Cornell's fifth ever win against the Tigers…keep Cornell on pace for second place in the Ivy League…be Cornell's second consecutive win over the Tigers…make the Big Red 4-0 at home this season.
SHOOTOUT CANCER
The Big Red will be holding its annual Shootout Cancer game this weekend, and the team will be selling pink T-shirts at the game. T-shirts are just $10, and all funds will support the Finger Lakes Cancer Resource Center.
CLOSE GAMES
After winning its first four games of the season by an average of 7.5 goals, the Big Red has been in much closer contests. Cornell defeated Penn State by one goal and Albany by two goals before falling to North Carolina and Penn by one goal each. The Big Red had four one-goal games last season, and the team split those contest 2-2.
SEVEN-GOAL RUN
Cornell and Penn traded seven-goal runs in their game on Sunday, with the Big Red coming from an 11-4 deficit in the second half to tie the game at 11-11. The scoring run was Cornell's second 7-0 run of the year, as the team also scored seven consecutive goals against Colgate.
IN FOR THE SAVE
Sophomore goaltender
Carly Gniewek saw her first significant action of the season against Penn, playing 41 minutes in relief of starter
Courtney Gallagher. Gniewek was excellent in making seven saves during that time, helping Cornell come from behind to tie the game against the Quakers. Her seven saves were one shy of a career high.
OVERTIME HIGHS AND LOWS
The Big Red's victory against Penn State on March 13 was its third overtime victory in the last three years and fourth consecutive overtime win in the last five years, but the team's loss in overtime at Penn was its first overtime defeat since February 2007 against Rutgers.
RIGHT ON THEIR HEELS
The Big Red narrowly missed its second ever victory against a top-three program on March 20 when it could not hold on to a 10-7 lead at No. 3 North Carolina. Cornell's only victory against a team ranked in the top three was a season-closing win against No. 2 Florida at the end of the 2011 campaign.
RECORD BROKEN
Sarah Hefner had not only the best draw control day of her career against Albany on March 17, but she also recorded the best draw control day in Big Red history. The sophomore won 10 draws against the Great Danes, breaking the previous school record held by
Jessi Steinberg by two. Hefner had never earned more than four draw controls in a game prior to Sunday.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
The Big Red has now won an Ivy League Player of the Week award in three of the last four weeks.
Lindsay Toppe was Offensive Player of the Week two weeks in a row before Salisbury and Hefner won on March 18. Toppe – who claimed the honor of March 4 and 11 – was the first Big Red player to earn back-to-back weekly awards since 2002. Back then, 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.
HATS OFF
Cornell had at least one player record a hat trick in all of its games last year, and its streak has now been extended to 31 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. Against the Quakers,
Lindsay Toppe had four goals to keep the streak alive. Toppe has now scored a hat trick seven times in that 31-game span.
Caroline Salisbury has the most hat tricks in that time with 16.
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, and the team never trailed in those first four games. 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. Cornell also trailed by as many as two goals against Albany on Sunday but rallied for a two-goal win in regulation.
SCHOOL RECORDS IN DANGER
Lindsay Toppe and freshman
Emily Tripodi both nearly threatened school records against Harvard on March 2. Toppe's nine points were 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 – she has 39 points on the year compared to 16 in her first year – other Cornell players seeing a larger role in the offense include
Amanda D'Amico (24 points this year, 18 all of 2012),
Lauren Halpern (eight this year, 11 last year),
Sarah Hefner (10 this year, 10 last year) and
Rachel Moody (21 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 26 ground balls this year as well as 18 caused turnovers. She's on pace to blow past her career bests in both of those categories as she is 11 ground balls and seven caused turnovers shy of her career bests. She is also 10th in the country with 3.25 ground balls per game.
NATIONALLY RANKED
Despite losing two games, Cornell dropped only one spot in this week's polls. Cornell fell from No. 10 to No. 11 in the IWLCA Coaches' Poll and slid from No. 11 to No. 12 in the deBeer Media Poll.
NATIONAL NUMBERS
Through four weeks, the Big Red continues to have players ranked near the top of the country in multiple statistical categories.
Lindsay Toppe is second in the nation with her 3.75 goals per game, and her 4.88 points per game has her in eighth.
Kate Ivory is ninth in the country with 2.25 caused turnovers per game and 10th with 3.25 ground balls per game.
Sarah Hefner's 3.5 draw controls per game put her 42nd in the country, and
Emily Tripodi is 21st in the nation with 2.0 assists per game.
As a team, Cornell is 10th in the country with its 14.13 goals per game and is eighth in the nation with 14.38 draw controls per game. Cornell is also 10th with 19.25 ground balls per game.
CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
Against Penn:
Approaching career numbers:
-
Sarah Hefner's next draw control will be her 40th.
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Kate Ivory is one ground ball away from 90 and one caused turnover shy of 50.
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Courtney Gallagher's next win will be her 10th, and she is two saves away from 100.
UP NEXT
The Big Red plays its third consecutive Ivy League game in a brutal stretch next weekend, traveling to New Hampshire for a Saturday matchup at Dartmouth at noon.
