ITHACA, N.Y. – With one week left in the regular season, the Big Red will begin its preparation for the postseason with two games at home. Cornell begins its week with a Tuesday-night contest against local rival Binghamton at 7 p.m.
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #14: Cornell vs. Binghamton
GAME TIME: Tuesday, April 23, 7 p.m.
GAME SITE: Schoellkopf Field (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads 1-0
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 17-8 on April 24, 2012
2013 RECORDS: Cornell (8-5); Binghamton (2-10)
LIVE STATS:
Cornell Live Stats
LIVE VIDEO:
Cornell Video
ABOUT THE BIG RED
With its postseason fate on the line last weekend at Yale, Cornell came up with a gigantic victory to clinch a spot in the Ivy League Tournament.
Lindsay Toppe led the way with four goals,
Emily Tripodi had four points and
Caroline Salisbury added three more as the Big Red defeated the Bulldogs 13-7 on their home turf.
Carly Gniewek was also terrific in goal yet again, making 10 saves to earn her second victory of the season. The win locked up the Ivy League's No. 4 seed for the Big Red, and Cornell will make the Ivy Tournament for the second consecutive season and third time in four years. Cornell will play the Quakers on their home field on May 3 with a chance to advance to the Ivy League title game on May 5.
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 147-97 record at Cornell and earned her 160th career win against Binghamton late last season.
ABOUT BINGHAMTON
The Bearcats, based in nearby Binghamton, are 2-10 on the season and 1-4 in the America East Conference with two games left on their schedule. With 100 teams in the NCAA, Binghamton ranks in the bottom 20 in every major category except draw controls through April 15. The team is 78th in the nation in draws at 10.82 per game. Leading the way on offense is Katherine Hunsberger with 29 goals and no assists. Kimberly McGeever is close behind with 17 goals and seven assists for 24 points. In net, Erin McNulty is seeing most of the team's action. She has a 13.16 goals against average and a .421 save percentage.
THE SERIES WITH BINGHAMTON
Cornell and Binghamton have met just once in the teams' history. That meeting came last season at Binghamton, a contest that the Big Red won handily, 17-8. In that game,
Kelly Lang had a team-high four goals,
Caroline Salisbury had three and
Lindsay Toppe,
Jessi Steinberg '12 and
Katie Kirk '12 had two each. Cornell had a 20-6 advantage in ground balls plus a 35-16 edge in total shots taken.
A WIN AGAINST BINGHAMTON WOULD…
…give Cornell nine victories in the season…be Cornell's second consecutive against Binghamton…give Cornell a 5-1 record at Schoellkopf Field…give Cornell five non-conference wins for the third consecutive year…improve the team's record to 11-7 against current America East teams all-time…be Cornell's fifth win against an in-state opponent this season and improve the team to 5-1 against those opponents.
CORNELL AGAINST THE AMERICA EAST CONFERENCE
Of the nine teams in the America East conference, Cornell has played five of them. The Big Red is 4-2 all-time against Vermont, 1-0 against Binghamton, Boston University and Albany, and 3-5 against New Hampshire for a combined record of 10-7. Cornell has never played Hartford, Maine, UMBC or Stony Brook.
IVY LEAGUE TOURNAMENT CLINCHED
Cornell entered Saturday's game against Yale needing a win to guarantee a spot in the league tournament, and it got that win handily. The Big Red will be the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament, playing top-seed and host Penn at Franklin Field on May 3 at 8 p.m. in the second semifinal game. Yale and Brown were eliminated from postseason contention with the Big Red win, while Princeton and Dartmouth will be the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, respectively, and play in the first semifinal at 5 p.m. on May 3. The tournament championship, held on May 5, will determine the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
SAVING THE DAY
Gniewek had the best week of her college career last week, taking over the starting spot for the Big Red in goal and shattering her previous career highs in saves. She made 14 saves at No. 5 Syracuse, besting her previous career high by six saves. Gniewek's performance was the most saves at Cornell since March 7, 2009 at Hofstra when Kristen Reese also had 14. Against Yale on Saturday, Gniewek had another double-digit save day that would have been two saves more than her previous career high. She was instrumental in a 13-7 win against that helped the Big Red clinch the fourth seed in the Ivy League Tournament. Her efforts earned her a spot on the Ivy League weekly Honor Roll.
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 13th in the country in goals against average (8.33) and fourth in the nation in save percentage (.518) with her current numbers.
HELPING HAND
Freshman
Emily Tripodi has now reached 24 assists in 12 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 2.00 assists per game. She had three assists against Yale on Saturday and scored four points total on the day. She was named to the Ivy League Honor Roll this week.
QUICK ON THE DRAW
Salisbury had a tremendous day on draw controls against the Orange on Tuesday, 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 and now has 55 in her career.
A NEW STREAK BEGINS?
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 that spanned more than two calendar years.
Lindsay Toppe had four goals against Yale on Saturday, which may be the beginning of another long streak.
RECEIVING VOTES
Cornell continues to receive votes in the deBeer Media Poll, and the Big Red dropped out of the IWLCA Coaches' Poll this week. Cornell was No. 20 last week and is receiving votes this week.
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.
Lindsay Toppe,
Caroline Salisbury,
Amanda D'Amico,
Sarah Hefner,
Rachel Moody,
Kelly Lang and
Emily Tripodi all have at least 10 goals.
Lauren Halpern has seven goals and three assists to put them all in double digits for points.
MUCH IMPROVED
Besides Toppe passing her points total from her freshman season – she has 48 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 (29 points this year, 18 all of 2012),
Lauren Halpern (10 this year, 11 last year),
Sarah Hefner (21 this year, 10 last year) and
Rachel Moody (23 this year, one in two previous years combined).
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 41 ground balls this year as well as 29 caused turnovers. She surpassed her career-high of 23 caused turnovers against Dartmouth, and she set a new career best for ground balls in a season against Yale. She is causing turnovers at a rate (2.23 per game) that would be 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.
IVY LEAGUE NUMBERS
Lindsay Toppe is currently second in the Ivy League with 37 goals, while
Emily Tripodi's 24 assists tie her for first in the conference. Her 2.00 assists per game is tops in the league, ad Toppe's 3.69 points per game is third in the conference.
Kate Ivory leads the way among the Ancient Eight with 41 ground balls and 3.15 per game, and the senior captain is in second with 29 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 April 22,
Lindsay Toppe is 36th in the nation with her 2.85 goals per game, and her 3.69 points per game has her in 46th.
Kate Ivory is sixth in the country with 2.23 caused turnovers per game and fifth with 3.15 ground balls per game.
Emily Tripodi is 19th in the nation with 2.00 assists per game.
As a team, Cornell is 36th in the country with its 11.85 goals per game and is 36th in the nation with 12.54 draw controls per game. Cornell is also 18th with 17.69 ground balls per game.
CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
Against Yale:
Approaching career numbers:
UP NEXT
The Big Red concludes its regular season against Boston University on Saturday at Schoellkopf Field at 1 p.m. After that, Cornell will face top-seed Penn in the Ivy League Tournament semifinal in Philadelphia on May 3 at 8 p.m.
