ITHACA, N.Y. – Averaging 16.66 goals per game this season, the Cornell women's lacrosse team is off to a very hot 3-0 start. The No. 14-ranked Big Red hope to continue its torrid scoring pace when it travels to Ivy League foe Columbia on Saturday for a 1 p.m. game.
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #3: No. 14 Cornell at Columbia
GAME TIME: Saturday, March 9, 2013, 1 p.m.
GAME SITE: Robert K. Kraft Field (New York, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads 16-0-0
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 19-7 on March 10, 2012
2013 RECORDS: Cornell (3-0, 1-0 Ivy League); Colgate (1-2, 0-1 Ivy League)
LIVE STATS:
Columbia Live Stats
LIVE VIDEO: None
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell, ranked No. 14 in the country, has won the first three games of the year for the second consecutive season. Midweek against Colgate, the Big Red got another stellar offensive performance as
Lindsay Toppe had six goals in the first half and
Caroline Salisbury scored four in the game. Seven other Big Red players scored in the game, while the Cornell defense held Colgate to just five goals. Those five goals were the fewest the Big Red has allowed since the middle of the 2011 season in an overtime win against Notre Dame. The Big Red will be looking to go 2-0 in the Ivy League for the second consecutive season when it faces Columbia on Saturday.
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 COLUMBIA
The Lions, based in New York, hold a 1-2 record on the year thanks to a season-opening win against Mount St. Mary's and losses to Lafayette and Brown in more recent weeks. The Lions are averaging 11 goals per game and allowing 10 1/3, but those numbers may be skewed by a 15-4 win against Mount St. Mary's in their first game. Leading Columbia on offense is Kacie Johnson who has 13 goals and two assists for 15 points. Paige Cuscovitch also has nine points on eight goals and one assist. In net, Skylar Dabbar has an 8.96 goals against average and a .435 save percentage.
The Lions are coached by Liz Kittleman Jackson, now in her third year leading Columbia.
THE SERIES WITH COLUMBIA
The Big Red and Lions have met 16 times in history, and the Big Red has won all 16 of those games in easily the most lopsided series in program history. In every meeting since 1997, Cornell has claimed victory by as many as 14 goals and as few as two. Cornell won 19-7 last year, getting hat tricks from
Jessi Steinberg,
Olivia Knotts and
Katie Kirk.
A WIN AGAINST COLUMBIA WOULD…
…give Cornell a 4-0 start to the season for the second consecutive year…be Cornell's eighth consecutive win in a true road game…be Cornell's 17th consecutive win against the Lions…start the Big Red at 2-0 in the Ivy League for the second straight year.
TOPPE AT IT AGAIN
After coming within one point of the school record for points in a game on Saturday,
Lindsay Toppe again threatened the Big Red record books by scoring six goals in the first half against Colgate on Wednesday. She was two goals shy of the single-game record at Cornell but did not score again in the second half. Toppe now has 22 points this season through three games, surpassing her total of 16 points from last year's 14 contests. Though still incredibly early, Toppe is on pace to completely shatter the Cornell record for points in a season (74) by more than 30 points.
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Lindsay Toppe nearly equaled the Cornell single-game records for points and assists against Harvard on Saturday, and the Ivy League honored Toppe for her excellence by namnig her the Offensive Player of the Week on Monday. The sophomore set a career high with seven assists in Cornell's season opener against Canisius two weekends ago, but she was even better against the Crimson. Despite not scoring for the first 13 or last 13 minutes of the game, Toppe sandwiched nine points in the contest's middle 34 minutes.
SCHOOL RECORDS IN DANGER
Lindsay Toppe and freshman
Emily Tripodi both nearly threatened school records against Harvard. 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 (eight points this year, 18 all of 2012),
Lauren Halpern (five this year, 11 last year),
Sarah Hefner (eight this year, 10 last year) and
Rachel Moody (12 this year, one in two previous years combined).
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
After spending the first week in the national poll at No. 16 and last week at No. 15 in the IWLCA Coaches' Poll, the Big Red moved up one more spot this week to No. 14. Cornell continues to receive votes in the deBeer Media Poll.
LUCKY NUMBER SEVEN
Lindsay Toppe and
Rachel Moody each scored seven points in the season opener at Canisius. Both were career highs, though Toppe has since broken hers. 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.
TEWAARATON WATCH LIST
Senior
Caroline Salisbury has been named to the Tewaaraton Trophy Watch List, the Tewaaraton Foundation announced before the season. 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.
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 2012 season and has eight goals in three games this year.
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 to open the year and will be looking to make it nine straight road wins this weekend. 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 two contests this year, Cornell is on pace for 245 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 26 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. Midweek against Colgate, Lidnsay Toppe's six goals and
Caroline Salisbury's four extended the streak for the Big Red.
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 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. All but two of the Big Red freshmen have seen action this season so far.
NATIONAL NUMBERS
Through two 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 Colgate:
Approaching career numbers:
UP NEXT
Cornell comes back to Ithaca next week for a home contest against No. 7 Penn State. The Big Red and Nittany Lions square off on Wednesday at 4 p.m.
