ITHACA, N.Y. – The women's soccer team will kick off a three-game home stand this weekend with a pair of games at Berman Field. The Big Red plays host to Marist at 5:30 p.m. Friday and Albany at 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Both games kick off a doubleheader with the men's soccer team.
 
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #4: Marist at Cornell
DATE: Friday, Sept. 13, 2013
TIME: 5:30 p.m.
SITE: Berman Field – Ithaca, N.Y. (grass surface)
2013 RECORDS: Marist 2-2-1, Cornell 1-1-1
VIDEO: None
AUDIO: www.ustream.tv/channel/brsn-live
LIVE STATS: www.sidearmstats.com/cornell/wsoc
 
GAME #5: Albany at Cornell
DATE: Sunday, Sept. 15, 2013
TIME: 2:30 p.m.
SITE: Berman Field – Ithaca, N.Y. (grass surface)
2013 RECORDS (not including Friday's games): Albany 1-4, Cornell 1-1-1
VIDEO: None
AUDIO: www.ustream.tv/channel/brsn-live
LIVE STATS: www.sidearmstats.com/cornell/wsoc

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is off to its best start since 2006, when it was also 1-1-1 after three games. All of this season's contests to date came in five-day span, commencing with a 1-0 victory Sept. 6 at Sacred Heart. Junior midfielder Kerry Schubert scored the game's only goal in the fifth minute, looping a header over the Pioneers goalkeeper after sophomore forward Caroline Growney made a run up the sideline and sent a cross toward the middle that was flicked on by freshman midfielder/forward Dempsey Banks. Senior goalkeeper Tori Christ was called upon to make just two saves for the shutout, which was the first of her collegiate career. After a 3-0 loss to reigning Patriot League champion Colgate, Cornell earned a scoreless draw Tuesday at Buffalo. Christ and freshman goalkeeper Kelsey Tierney combined on a five-save shutout.
 
ABOUT MARIST
The Red Foxes are level at 2-2-1 after a 1-1 draw with LIU-Brooklyn on Sunday. While Marist is averaging 2.00 goals per game, five of the team's 10 goals on the season came in a 5-1 thumping of UMass-Lowell on Aug. 29. … Senior forward Alycia Cartica has three goals and two assists for a team-leading eight points – with all but one goal coming against UMass-Lowell. Junior midfielder Amanda Epstein, a first-team All-MAAC selection after leading the team in scoring last year, has two goals and two assists for six points. Senior midfielder Samantha Panzner leads the team with three assists to go with one goal for five points, and freshman midfielder/defender Danielle Glazer has a pair of goals. … Junior Andrea Wicks has played every minute of the Red Foxes' five games in goal, posting a 2-2-1 record with a 1.29 goals-against average, .731 save percentage and one shutout.
 
THE SERIES WITH MARIST
The Red Foxes defeated the Big Red, 2-0, at the Red Fox Invitational on Sept. 16, 2011 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The only other meeting in the programs' history was a scoreless draw on Oct. 6, 2002 at the Vermont Invitational. Cornell outshot Marist, 33-7, and had a 16-1 advantage in corner kicks.
 
ABOUT ALBANY
The Great Danes were enduring a four-game losing streak going into Friday's game at Canisius. … Like Cornell, Albany lost its top three scorers from last season. Senior Aubrey VanGorder (from nearby Cortland) and freshman Helena Olafsdottir (from not-so-nearby Iceland) share the team lead in scoring with three points on a goal and an assist apiece. Freshman Anna Seneta has the Great Danes' other goal this season, while junior Stephanie Nelle has pitched in with an assist. … Senior Dani Britt has been the primary option in goal with a 1-2 record, 3.00 goals-against average and .526 save percentage in three games. Sophomore Alana Brennan (0-2, 4.00, .619) has tended goal in the other two games. … Caitlin Colfer is in her first season as head coach of the Great Danes.
 
THE SERIES WITH ALBANY
The Big Red holds a 2-1 lead in the all-time series with the Great Danes, including a 2-1 overtime win in 2005when Kara Ishikawa scored both goals. Cornell then sailed to a 5-0 victory the following year behind three goals from Ithaca native Alison McKeown. The Great Danes got their first victory in the series with a 5-2 win on Sept. 9, 2012, despite a pair of Big Red goals from Xandra Hompe. The Big Red is 16-11-5 all-time against teams currently in the America East Conference.
 
HEAD COACH PATRICK FARMER
Now in his 21st season as a head coach in the NCAA, Patrick Farmer is entering his second season as the Cornell women's soccer program's fifth head coach. Farmer comes to the Big Red via the University of Wisconsin, where he served as an assistant coach with the Badgers' women's soccer team for three years. Prior to his stint at Wisconsin, Farmer has amassed a 261-97-40 record at Ithaca College, Penn State, Tennessee Tech and Syracuse. He also served as a head coach at the professional level for two seasons, heading the New York Power of the Women's United Soccer Association. Megan Ramey returns to Cornell for her third season as an assistant coach, and Dwight Hornibrook is in his second season as an assistant coach after serving as the head coach of SUNY Cortland men's soccer for eight years. Brett Sarsfield has also joined the staff as a volunteer assistant coach.
 
QUICK STARTERS
Cornell has had great success in the 31 season openers in the program's history, picking up a 17-10-4 mark in the first game of the season. That trend was reignited this season, when a 1-0 victory over Sacred Heart gave the Big Red its first win in a season debut since defeating Oakland (Mich.) in 2008.
 
BLANK YOU VERY MUCH
Senior goalkeeper Tori Christ recorded the first shutout of her collegiate career on Sept. 6 at Sacred Heart. The native of Amherst, N.Y. – just down the road from UB Stadium – needed to make just two saves to record the shutout in her 16th collegiate start. Tending goal runs in the family for Christ, whose father, Philip, played goalie for the Northeastern hockey team in his collegiate days and currently serves as a practice goalie for the NHL's Buffalo Sabres. Christ and freshman goalkeeper Kelsey Tierney then split time in a scoreless draw with Buffalo on Tuesday, marking the first time since 2005 that the Big Red had two clean sheets in their first three games.
 
ALOHA!
Freshman Dempsey Banks needed less than five minutes to record the first point of her collegiate career, notching the primary assist on Kerry Schubert's goal Sept. 6 at Sacred Heart. Banks joins the Big Red from Honolulu, Hawaii, coming from the same strong Punahou School and Leahi SC programs that produced Jayann Gabrio '13, a key central defender for the Big Red over her collegiate career.
 
GOOD THINGS COME IN THREES
The Big Red has tri-captains for the fifth time in seven years with seniors Tori Christ and Rachel Nichols, and junior Claire MacManus wearing the armbands. Christ is the Big Red's first goalkeeper to serve as a two-time captain since Sherrie Chocola in 1985 and 1986.
 
SHE'S HONORED
Junior midfielder Claire MacManus was recognized for being one of the top defensive midfielders in the Ivy League last season, when she was tabbed as an All-Ivy Second Team selection. One of the team's best aerial threats, MacManus scored her only goal of last season against Sacred Heart. Off a corner kick on Sept. 14, MacManus redirected the service 10 yards from goal and past the Pioneers' keeper for the second of her collegiate career. MacManus is also a midfielder on the women's lacrosse team.
 
YOUTH IS SERVED
The Big Red is carrying a roster of 25 players this season, which is the smallest since it carried 25 in 2009. While there are six seniors on this year's team, the most-represented class is the freshmen. Patrick Farmer's first recruiting class included eight freshmen, plus the addition of one transfer and two walk-ons.

NATIONAL APPEAL
The Big Red has 12 different states and China represented on the team roster, with its home state of New York claiming seven players. Cornell has three players that hail from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, two each from California and Virginia, and single representatives from Hawaii, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico and Oregon. Dana Daniels comes from China, but joins the Big Red via The Bullis School in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

UP NEXT
Cornell will wrap up its season-high three-game home stand at 5 p.m. Wednesday when it hosts regional rival Binghamton at Berman Field. After a neutral-site game against Cincinnati on Friday in Bridgeport, Conn., the Big Red returns home for games against NJIT (Sunday, Sept. 22) and Columbia (Friday, Sept. 27) at Berman Field.