ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell finishes its regular season on Saturday with a game against Boston University, a team not seen by the Big Red since 2002. Cornell will recognize its seniors before it takes on the Terriers at 1 p.m.
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #15: Cornell vs. Boston University
GAME TIME: Saturday, April 27, 1 p.m.
GAME SITE: Schoellkopf Field (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads 1-0
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 11-8 on April 14, 2002
2013 RECORDS: Cornell (9-5); Boston University (6-8)
LIVE STATS: Cornell Live Stats
LIVE VIDEO: Cornell Video
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell claimed a midweek contest against Binghamton on Tuesday night at Schoellkopf Field by a 17-11 margin, pulling away from the Bearcats early and hanging on for the win.
Lindsay Toppe had six goals and
Emily Tripodi had six assists while
Courtney Gallagher managed five saves in net.
Caroline Salisbury also had a strong night with four goals and eight draw controls. The Big Red has already locked up the Ivy League's No. 4 seed in the conference tournament next weekend, 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 148-97 record at Cornell and earned her 160th career win against Binghamton late last season.
ABOUT BOSTON UNIVERSITY
The Terriers, based in Boston, hold a 6-8 record on the year and are coming off a 16-15 win against Yale in New Haven, Conn., on Wednesday night. Entering the week, BU was averaging 11.77 goals per game, 38th in the nation. The team excels at causing turnovers, averaging 10.15 of them per game to rank ninth in the country in that category. Danielle Etrasco leads the way in scoring, averaging 3.69 goals per game to rank second in the nation, and she had six goals against the Bulldogs on Wednesday. She is also eighth in the country with 4.85 points per game. She now has 54 goals and 17 assists on the season, and Kristen Mogavero is the team's second-leading scorer with 34 goals and one assist. In net, Christina Sheridan has played most of the minutes. She has a goals against average of 12.42 and a save percentage of .424.
THE SERIES WITH BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Cornell and Boston University have only met one time in their history, and that meeting came 11 years ago. Cornell claimed that 2002 contest by an 11-8 margin over the Terriers in a game played in Massachusetts. The Big Red that season went on to the NCAA Final Four, the only time the team has reached that point in program history.
A WIN AGAINST BOSTON UNIVERSITY WOULD…
…give Cornell 10 victories in the season for the second straight year…be Cornell's second consecutive against the Terriers…give Cornell a 6-1 record at Schoellkopf Field…give Cornell six non-conference wins for the second consecutive year…improve the team's record to 12-7 against current America East teams all-time.
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, 2-0 against Binghamton, Boston University and Albany, and 3-5 against New Hampshire for a combined record of 11-7. Cornell has never played Hartford, Maine, UMBC or Stony Brook.
SENIOR DAY
Cornell will honor its six seniors at Saturday's contest as
Courtney Gallagher,
Lauren Halpern,
Kate Ivory,
Kelly Lang,
Veronica Lizzio and
Caroline Salisbury will be playing their last game at Schoellkopf Field. Those six seniors have combined for 143 goals, 46 assists, 185 draw controls and 248 ground balls in their career while Gallagher has nine victories and over 100 saves to her name.
ASSISTING
Emily Tripodi had the best day of her young career on Tuesday night, scoring one goal and adding six assists. Those assists tied the single-game record at Cornell. Tripodi had previously scored five assists in her first ever game against Harvard in early March. The last person to record six assists in a game was Courtney Farrell '08 in 2007. Tripodi is now also four assists shy of tying the single-season assists record at Cornell. Farrell also holds that mark with 34 assists in a season. Tripodi currently has the best average number of assists per game in team history as well (2.31). She was named to the Ivy League Honor Roll on Monday.
SIX GOALS AGAIN
For the second time this season,
Lindsay Toppe reached the six-goal mark against Binghamton. Toppe scored three in the first half and three in the second half, tying her career best in the process. The sophomore leads all Cornell scorers with 43 goals on the season just one year after she had only 11. Toppe's 43 goals are currently the 7th-best in a single season, and with four more goals she would move into a tie for second. Her 54 points on the season is tied for the ninth-best mark in program history.
QUICK ON THE DRAW
Besides scoring four goals against Binghamton, all in the second half,
Caroline Salisbury set a new career best with eight draw controls versus the Bearcats. Her previous career high of seven was set only a week earlier at Syracuse. She now has 63 draws in her career and 40 alone this season. Her 40 draws is tied for the sixth-best performance in a single season in Big Red history, and she is only seven shy of tying the school record.
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.
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 March 16 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. Cornell has now begun a new streak and has recorded a hat trick in its last two games.
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 nine 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 54 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 (30 points this year, 18 all of 2012),
Lauren Halpern (11 this year, 11 last year),
Sarah Hefner (22 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 46 ground balls this year as well as 31 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 (2.21 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, and Tripodi tied that record against Binghamton on Tuesday.
IVY LEAGUE NUMBERS
Lindsay Toppe is currently second in the Ivy League with 43 goals, while
Emily Tripodi's 30 assists is the highest in the conference. Her 2.31 assists per game is tops in the league, and Toppe's 3.86 points per game is third in the conference.
Kate Ivory leads the way among the Ancient Eight with 46 ground balls and 3.29 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 Binghamton:
Approaching career numbers:
UP NEXT
The postseason begins for the Big Red as it travels to Philadelphia for the Ivy League Tournament. Cornell will play top seed Penn on its home field at 7 p.m. on May 3. With a victory, the Big Red would advance to the league title game on May 5 at noon against either Dartmouth or Princeton.
