ITHACA, N.Y. – The most important game of No. 20 Cornell's season comes on Saturday afternoon as it seeks to clinch a spot in the Ivy League Tournament with a win at Yale. The Big Red and Bulldogs will face off at 1 p.m. at Reese Stadium with a victory ensuring Cornell the fourth spot in the conference tournament in two weeks.
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #13: No. 20 Cornell at Yale
GAME TIME: Saturday, April 20, 1 p.m.
GAME SITE: Reese Stadium (New Haven, Conn.)
SERIES RECORD: Yale leads 19-15
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 17-9 on April 21, 2012
2013 RECORDS: Cornell (7-5, 3-3 Ivy League); Yale (7-5, 1-4 Ivy League)
LIVE STATS:
Yale Live Stats
LIVE VIDEO:
Yale Live Video (free)
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Though Cornell ended a four-game losing streak with a key win against Brown on Saturday, the Big Red lost again on Tuesday when it traveled to No. 5 Syracuse for a midweek game. Sophomore goalie
Carly Gniewek had a standout performance for Cornell, making a career-high 14 saves, but the Big Red could not get past the Orange defense. Syracuse won by a 16-4 margin in the Carrier Dome after leading 9-2 at halftime. Cornell maintains possession of fourth place in the Ivy League, though, and it needs only 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 YALE
The Bulldogs, based in New Haven, Conn., have seven wins this season but only one in the Ivy League. Though it lost its first four Ivy League contests, the Bulldogs fought to a 13-12 win against Columbia last weekend to pick up their only conference win. Yale is 13th in the country with 14 draw controls per game, and the Bulldogs are led in that category by Nicole Daniggelis' 6.3 draws per game, good for fifth in the nation. Devon Rhodes leads the way on offense with 43 points on 30 goals and 13 assists, while Daniggelis has 30 goals as well. In net, Erin McMullan has played every minute for the Bulldogs. She has a 10.83 goals against average and a .395 save percentage.
THE SERIES WITH YALE
The Big Red's rivalry with the Bulldogs dates all the way back to 1980. In the 33 years since, Yale has won 19 of the teams' 34 meetings. Cornell, though, has won five consecutive times and no current member of the team has lost to the Bulldogs. Last season, Cornell won 17-9 thanks to five goals each from
Caroline Salisbury and
Jessi Steinberg '12.
Sarah Hefner,
Amanda D'Amico,
Lauren Halpern,
Katie Kirk '12 and
Shannon McHugh '12 also scored in that game.
A WIN AGAINST YALE WOULD…
…give Cornell eight wins on the year…be the Big Red's sixth consecutive win against Yale…clinch the No. 4 seed in the Ivy League Tournament for Cornell...give Cornell four Ivy League wins for the second consecutive year and the 10th time since 2000.
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. Yale would claim the final spot if it beats Cornell and Brown, while Harvard and Columbia are eliminated. Penn has claimed the top seed and will host the tournament on May 1 and 3 thanks to its win against Princeton on Wednesday night. Princeton and Dartmouth will be the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds. Cornell finished third in the league last year and played Dartmouth in the Ivy League Tournament semifinal.
SAVING THE DAY
Sophomore goalie
Carly Gniewek had a phenomenal outing in the Carrier Dome on Tuesday night, making 14 saves to set a new career high. In just her third start, Gniewek eclipsed her previous career high of eight saves in a game in the first half against the Orange, making nine saves in 30 minutes. She added five more saves in the second half in what was just her third career start. Gniewek's performance was the most saves at Cornell since March 7, 2009 at Hofstra when Kristen Reese also had 14.
Though Gniewek is not eligible to be ranked nationally in statistics because she has not played 60 percent of Cornell's minutes, she would be 16th in the country in goals against average and tied for fourth in the nation in save percentage with her current numbers.
HELPING HAND
Freshman
Emily Tripodi has now reached 21 assists in 11 games to begin the season, and her 1.91 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 1.91 assists per game. She had one assist against Brown on Friday and one against the Orange on Saturday, and she sits tied for 20th in the nation in that stat so far this year.
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, and Cornell is 13-4 in those games when she has a hat trick.
QUICK ON THE DRAW
Salisbury had a tremendous day on draw controls against the Orange, recording seven draws to set a new career high. Her previous career high of six draws came at No. 3 North Carolina earlier this season. Salisbury also reached 50 career draw controls at the Carrier Dome on Tuesday.
HAT TRICK STREAK ENDS
After 33 consecutive games for the Big Red with at least one player recording a hat trick, the streak came to an end on Tuesday night at Syracuse.
Kelly Lang came closest for Cornell with two goals, but Cornell only scored four total goals and time ran out before someone could extend the streak.
Caroline Salisbury contributed the most to the Big Red's run, scoring 17 hat tricks in those 33 games. Before Tuesday night, the last time Cornell had gone without a player scoring a hat trick was in March 2011 against North Carolina.
NATIONALLY RANKED
Cornell is clinging to its national ranking this week in the IWLCA Coaches' Poll, dropping two spots from No. 18 to No. 20. Cornell continues to receive votes in the deBeer Media Poll.
SPREADING THE OFFENSE AROUND
The Big Red is not just a one-person show on offense, as eight 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,
Emily Tripodi has nine goals and 21 assists and
Lauren Halpern has seven goals and three assists to put them all in double digits for points. Last season, 11 Big Red players finished the season with double-digit points.
CENTURY MARK
Senior defender
Kate Ivory recorded four ground balls against Brown on April 12, 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 second-best in Cornell history for a single season if the season ended today.
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.
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 passing her points total from her freshman season – she has 44 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 (10 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).
IVY LEAGUE NUMBERS
Lindsay Toppe is currently second in the Ivy League with 33 goals, while
Emily Tripodi's 21 assists put her second in the conference. Her 1.91 assists per game is tops in the league.
Kate Ivory leads the way among the Ancient Eight with 37 ground balls, and the senior captain is in second with 26 caused turnovers.
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. Through last week's games,
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 Syracuse:
Approaching career numbers:
UP NEXT
The Big Red begins its final week of the regular season by hosting Binghamton on Tuesday. Cornell and the Bearcats will begin their game at 7 p.m. on Schoellkopf Field.
