ITHACA, N.Y. – After an all-important victory against Brown on Friday, the Big Red women's lacrosse team is back in action against a top-five Syracuse squad on the road on Tuesday. Cornell will be looking to bolster its NCAA resume against the Orange at the Carrier Dome at 4 p.m. The game will be televised locally on Time Warner Cable.
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #12: Cornell at No. 5 Syracuse
GAME TIME: Tuesday, April 16, 4 p.m.
GAME SITE: Carrier Dome (Syracuse, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Syracuse leads 11-5
LAST MEETING: Syracuse won 16-9 on April 17, 2012
2013 RECORDS: Cornell (7-4); Syracuse (9-3)
LIVE STATS:
Syracuse Live Stats
Live Video:
Syracuse Video
LIVE TV: Time Warner Cable
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell snapped a four-game losing streak last week when it defeated Brown 9-7 at Schoellkopf Field. The Big Red took a 2-0 lead early, but Brown fought back for a 3-2 advantage. After that, Cornell rattled off five of the next six goals to take a 7-4 lead into halftime. The scoring slowed down after the break, but Cornell got three goals from
Caroline Salisbury and six saves from
Carly Gniewek – making her first start of the year – to defeat the Bears. The win gives Cornell possession of fourth place in the league, and the team only needs to beat Yale on Saturday to clinch a spot in the Ivy League Tournament for the second straight 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 145-96 record at Cornell and earned her 160th career win against Binghamton late last season.
ABOUT SYRACUSE
The Orange, based in nearby Syracuse, is a battle-tested squad with a 9-3 record overall this season. Syracuse has already played three of the top four teams in the country, though it lost those games to Florida, Northwestern and Maryland. The Orange is a perfect 5-0 in Big East play and ranked No. 5 in the nation in the deBeer Media Poll. On offense, Syracuse is led by Alyssa Murray's incredible 56 points off 37 goals and 19 assists. Kayla Treanor also has 30 goals for a Syracuse squad that is averaging 14.83 goals per game. In net, Kelsey Richardson and Alyssa Costantino are splitting time, with Richardson getting most of the minutes. She has a 7.75 goals against average and a .396 save percentage.
THE SERIES WITH SYRACUSE
The Big Red and Orange have a rivalry that dates back to 1998, with Syracuse claiming 11 of 16 games between them. The Orange has won the last six games in the series, and the Big Red's last win came in 2006. Cornell has never defeated the Orange at the Carrier Dome. Last season, Syracuse came to Ithaca ranked No. 2 in the country, and the Orange tallied nine of the first 10 goals to cruise to a 16-9 win.
Caroline Salisbury was Cornell's leading scorer with three goals.
A WIN AGAINST SYRACUSE WOULD…
…give Cornell eight wins on the year…be Cornell's first victory against a top-five opponent since defeating No. 2 Florida in May 2011 and its second win against a top-five team ever…be Cornell's first win against Syracuse since 2006…be Cornell's first win against a Big East opponent since defeating Loyola on April 14, 2012…be Cornell's first win in the Carrier Dome against Syracuse.
CORNELL VS. THE BIG EAST
The Big Red has played current members of the Big East 51 times in its history, and the opposition has a narrow 26-25 advantage over Cornell in those contests. The Big Red largely owes that narrow margin to a 13-3 record against Rutgers. Cornell is 5-11 lifetime against Syracuse, 4-7 against Notre Dame, 0-2 against Georgetown, and 3-3 against Loyola. The Big Red has never played Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville or Villanova.
IVY LEAGUE TOURNAMENT HUNT
With one game left in its Ivy League season, Cornell is in fourth place in the conference standings. A win against Yale on Saturday would clinch that fourth spot for Cornell, but the Big Red can also earn the fourth seed if it loses to Yale and Brown loses one of its next two Ivy games (vs. league co-leader Penn on April 20 or vs. Yale on April 27). Yale would claim the final spot if it beats Cornell and Brown, while Harvard and Columbia are eliminated. Princeton, Penn and Dartmouth have locked up the top three seeds this year in some order. Cornell finished third in the league last year and played Dartmouth in the Ivy League Tournament semifinal.
BACK ON TRACK
Caroline Salisbury had gone three games without recording a hat trick, and the Big Red lost all three of those contests (Penn, Princeton, Dartmouth). But against Brown on Friday, Salisbury had three of the team's nine goals to lead the way for the Big Red in an important victory. The senior captain now has 17 hat tricks dating back to April 26, 2011 against Syracuse.
SPREADING THE OFFENSE AROUND
The Big Red is not just a one-person show on offense, as seven different players have at least 10 points and one more is just one point shy of that mark.
Lindsay Toppe,
Caroline Salisbury,
Amanda D'Amico,
Sarah Hefner,
Rachel Moody and
Kelly Lang all have at least 10 goals, and
Emily Tripodi has eight goals and 20 assists to put them all in double digits for points.
Lauren Halpern (seven goals, two assists) is just one point away from double digits. Last season, 11 Big Red players finished the season with double-digit points.
HELPING HAND
Freshman
Emily Tripodi has now reached 20 assists in 10 games to begin the season, and her 2.00 assists per game is good enough for second in Cornell history for a single season. Though her sample size is small, Tripodi is also currently ranked first at Cornell in a career with those two assists per game. She had one assist against Brown on Friday, and she sits tied for 20th in the nation in that stat so far this year.
ABOVE AVERAGE
Sophomore
Carly Gniewek got her first start of the season on Friday against Brown, and she made the most of it to pick up the victory. She has made 20 saves in 175 minutes this season and allowed just 18 goals, good for a goals against average of 6.16. She also got her first win of the season in that game. If she were eligible to be ranked nationally, Gniewek's goals against average would put her second in the country. Her save percentage (.526) would be third-bestthe nation. She was one save shy of a career high against Penn when she record seven saves, and she had seven more against the Bears. Her career best, eight, came against Brown last season.
CENTURY MARK
Senior defender
Kate Ivory recorded four ground balls against Brown on Friday, and those four put her at exactly 100 in her career. Despite missing all of her junior year with an injury, the captain looks to be playing her best now that she's healthy. Ivory leads Cornell with 37 ground balls this year as well as 26 caused turnovers. She surpassed her career-high of 23 caused turnovers against Dartmouth, and she tied her career best for ground balls in a season against Brown. Her next ground ball will be a single-season career high. She is also causing turnovers at a rate that would be best in Cornell history for a single season if the season ended today.
ROWE RETURNS
After suffering an injury in the preseason, captain
Chelsea Rowe returned to major action against Princeton in late March. The junior midfielder had a great start to her day, scoring the Big Red's first goal, and she again saw action against Dartmouth and Brown in the team's next two games.
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.
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 that contest.
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 33 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 Brown,
Caroline Salisbury recorded her 17th hat trick of the streak with three goals.
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 42 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 (27 points this year, 18 all of 2012),
Lauren Halpern (nine this year, 11 last year),
Sarah Hefner (19 this year, 10 last year) and
Rachel Moody (22 this year, one in two previous years combined).
NATIONALLY RANKED
Cornell remains in the top 20 nationally in the IWLCA Coaches' Poll. The Big Red dropped two spots this week, falling from No. 18 to No. 20. The Big Red is receiving votes in the deBeer Media Poll for the second straight week.
NATIONAL NUMBERS
With more than two thirds of the regular season now complete, the Big Red continues to have players ranked near the top of the country in multiple statistical categories.
Lindsay Toppe is 23rd in the nation with her 3.00 goals per game, and her 3.82 points per game has her in 43rd.
Kate Ivory is fifth in the country with 2.36 caused turnovers per game and second with 3.36 ground balls per game.
Sarah Hefner's 2.91 draw controls per game put her 62nd in the country, and
Emily Tripodi is 20th in the nation with 2.00 assists per game.
As a team, Cornell is 28th in the country with its 12.45 goals per game and is 38th in the nation with 12.45 draw controls per game. Cornell is also 16th with 18.18 ground balls per game.
CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
Against Brown:
Approaching career numbers:
UP NEXT
Cornell stays on the road for its final Ivy League regular season contest against Yale this weekend. The Big Red and Bulldogs will be squaring off a 1 p.m. at Reese Stadium.
