GAME INFORMATION
GAME #5: Cornell at Penn
GAME TIME: Saturday, Sept. 21, at Noon
GAME SITE: Ellen Vagelos Field (Philadelphia, Pa.)
SERIES RECORD: Penn leads, 22-13-2
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 4-0, Sept. 15, 2012 (Ithaca, N.Y.)
2013 RECORDS: Cornell (2-2); Penn (2-1)
LIVE STATS: http://www.pennathletics.com/liveStats/liveStats.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=1700
LIVE VIDEO: IvyLeagueDigitalNetwork.com

THE MATCHUP: The Big Red field hockey team opens its 35th season of Ivy League play this weekend when it travels to Penn for a contest on Saturday, Sept. 21 at noon. Cornell (2-2) will look to win its third consecutive game, while the Quakers (2-1) will try and rebound from a 2-1 loss in its last outing.

THE SERIES WITH PENN: The Big Red and the Quakers have squared off 37 times since first meeting in 1976 and Penn holds a 22-13-2 advantage in the all-time series. The Quakers dominated the series early on, posting a 17-2-2 record from 1978-1998, but Cornell has won six of the last eight, including a dominating 4-0 victory last season on Marsha Dodson Field. That game was an anomaly, with 14 of the last 21 meetings between the two squads being decided by one goal, with seven overtime contests.

SCOUTING THE QUAKERS: Penn is off to a 2-1 start, earning victories over Lehigh and Saint Joseph's before dropping a one-goal decision to Bucknell last weekend. Overall, the Quakers are outscoring its opponents, 11-8, having posted five goals against both Lehigh and Saint Joseph's. Jasmine Cole and Elise Tilton have registered four and three goals, respectively, to lead Penn, while Emily Corcoran has posted two goals and one assist for five points. In goal, Carley Sokach has played all 210 minutes and has allowed eight goals while making 22 saves for a 2.67 goals-against average and a .733 save percentage.     

LAST TIME VS. PENN:  Hannah Balleza registered the first hat trick of her career, with three consecutive goals in the first half of play, as she led the Big Red to its first victory of the 2012 season, a 4-0 triumph over Ivy League foe Penn  on Marsha Dodson Field. The game was extremely close statistically, with Cornell holding the slim 15-14 edge in shots, while penalty corners were even at seven apiece. In the end, the contest came down to the Big Red making the most of its offensive chances, while getting eight saves from goalkeeper Carolyn Horner, as well as a defensive save from Taylor Standiford. Penn's goalie Carly Sokach made just six saves in the loss. Balleza got the Big Red off to a great start when she converted a pass from Alania Skalski in the eighth minute of play to make it a 1-0 game. Just under five minutes later, the home team went up 2-0 off a perfectly executed penalty corner when the ball went from Kat DiPastina to Brittany Thompson before Balleza one-timed it into the net. The Big Red continued to keep up the offensive pressure and in the 22nd minute DiPastina came up with a loose ball and dribbled up the left side before sending it into the circle to Balleza, who ripped a shot from past Sokach to make it a 3-0 game. Less than two minutes later, Cornell earned its final goal when Elly Plappert collected a long upfield pass from Balleza, bounced the ball off the ground to get around her defender, and then lofted it over Sokach's head to score her first goal of her career and to account for the 4-0 final.

A WIN OVER THE QUAKERS WOULD:
* even Cornell's record in Ivy League openers to 16-16-3 all-time.
* improve head coach Donna Hornibrook to 8-2 in Ivy League season openers.
* give Cornell a winning record at 3-2.
* run the Big Red's current winning-streak to three games.

IVY OPENERS: Cornell opens its 35th season of Ivy League play this weekend against Penn. The Big Red is 15-16-3 all-time in conference season openers, thanks mostly to a 12-4 record since 1997. Cornell has played only four of the seven Ivy League teams in its season openers through the years. Its best records in Ivy openers are against Yale (1-0) and Columbia (6-1). The Big Red has played Princeton more than any other team in conference openers (14), posting a 3-9-2 record, but the two teams have not met in the season opener since 1999. Cornell has met Penn 12 times in its conference opener, posting a 5-6-1 record against the Quakers.

THE HEAD COACH: Cornell head coach Donna Hornibrook is in her 10th season at Cornell (78-72, .520) ... Hornibrook became the sixth coach in Cornell field hockey history in January 2004 ... She has a 248-119-10 (.671) record as a head coach, including a 111-39-4 mark at Houghton and a 60-8-6 record at New Brunswick.

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK: After helping the Big Red to even its record at 2-2 with a pair of wins over St. Francis (Pa.) and Georgetown, freshman Georgia Lord was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week on Sept. 17, sharing the honor with Harvard's Sarah Finnemore. Lord registered one goal in each contest.

THE KEYSTONE STATE: Of Cornell's 17 opponents during this season, six come from the state of Pennsylvania – Lock Haven, St. Francis (Pa.), Penn, Drexel, Saint Joseph's and Lehigh – the most by any one state on the schedule. So far, the Big Red is 1-1 against the Keystone State.

MOVING ON UP: Senior Hannah Balleza ranks third overall in Cornell history with 33 career goals. She needs just three more tallies to move into a tie for second place with Catie DeStio (2007-10). She also currently ranks fifth in Big Red history for career points with 79. She needs just five more points to move into a tie with Emily Robb (1995-98), who sits in fourth place overall with 84 points.

HORNER SHUTOUTS: Carolyn Horner ranks fourth overall in Big Red history with six career shutouts, along with Kaitlin Tierney (2000-03). She needs just one more shutout to move into a tie for third place with Kelly Clark (1985-87).

SAVES A LOT: Carolyn Horner has 185 career saves to her credit, good for 12th overall in Big Red history. She needs 23 more to surpass her predecessor, Alex Botte '12, who sits in 11th place with 207 career saves.

WINNING!!: With her 12 career wins, Carolyn Horner ranks 11th in Cornell history. She needs just one more to move into 10th place overall with Karen Kuhn (1975-77).

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE (A NEW) HOME: The Big Red is 27-15 all-time on Marsha Dodson Field. Collectively, the team has outscored its opponents by a margin of 93-69 and has taken significantly more shots (762-445) than its opponents. The defense has been equally solid in the circle, allowing just 246 penalty corners (5.9 per game).

FAST STARTS: Scoring first has been a big part of the Big Red's success in recent years. Since Coach Hornibrook has taken over the program, Cornell has posted an impressive 69-13 record in games in which they have scored first. Conversely, the team has won only nine games in which they have had to come back from an early deficit to win. The first was Coach Hornibrook's very first victory with the team, a 6-3 win over Lehigh in 2004, with the latest coming on Sept. 13, 2013 as Cornell overcame an early 1-0 deficit to defeat St. Francis (Pa.), 3-1, in Ithaca, N.Y.

KNOCK THREE TIMES: When the Big Red fell to Brown last season, 4-3, in double overtime, it marked only the third time in Coach Hornibrook's career with Cornell that the team scored three goals and lost the contest. Under Coach Hornibrook, the Big Red improved to 49-3 in games in which it scores at least three goals when it defeated Georgetown (3-1) on Sept. 15, 2013.

CLOSE CALLS: Cornell's 3-2 loss in overtime to Lock Haven in the 2013 season opemer continued the Big Red's trend of playing in one-goal games. Since the start of the 2006 season, the Big Red has lost 50 games, with 30 of those coming by a single goal, including 14 in overtime. During that same span, Cornell has won 63 games, with 31 coming in one-goal games, including nine in overtime.

SHOT STOPPER: Carolyn Horner finished the 2012 season ranked fifth in the nation in save percentage (.796) and was 11th overall in saves per game (7.56).

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN:  Carolyn Horner and Hannah Balleza have been named captains for the 2013 season.

SISTER ACT: Since the beginning of the 2007 campaign, Cornell has had at least one set of sisters on its roster each season. This year, the team features one set of sisters – twins Keelin and Mallory Bannon.

TWINS AND MORE TWINS!: While fans of the Big Red know that seniors Keelin and Mallory Bannon are twins, many might not know that another member of the team has a twin, who also plays a collegiate sport. Senior Carolyn Horner's twin, Gabby, plays lacrosse at Tufts.

U-S-A; U-S-A: Hannah Balleza has been a member of the US Indoor National Squad for the past four years.

LANGUAGE 101: Senior Carolyn Horner is fluent in Chinese.

ON THE BLOCK: Ann DiPastina is a member of Cornell's Block and Bridle Club and has trained beef heifers by halter breaking them.

ALL-IVY ACCOLADES: Cornell had five players named All-Ivy in 2012, four of whom are back for the 2013 season – seniors Hannah Balleza (first-team) and Carolyn Horner (first-team), junior Ann DiPastina (honorable mention) and sophomore Marisa Siergiej (second-team).

SMARTY PANTS: The Big Red placed five student-athletes on the 2012 Gladiator by SGI/NFHCA Division I National Academic Squad. Cornell has had at least four players earn the honor in sight of the past nine seasons. Additionally, the 2012 squad earned the NFHCA Collegiate National Academic Team Award for the fifth time during head coach Donna Hornibrook's tenure.

UP NEXT: The Big Red returns to Ithaca next weekend to take on Columbia at Marsha Dodson Field on Saturday, Sept. 28 at noon.