Riding its first four-game unbeaten streak in eight years, the women's soccer team will look to keep rolling this weekend with a neutral-site match Friday night against Cincinnati before returning home to face NJIT at 4 p.m. Sunday.
 
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #7: Cornell vs. Cincinnati
DATE: Friday, Sept. 20, 2013
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Knights Field – Bridgeport, Conn. (grass surface)
2013 RECORDS: Cincinnati 2-6, Cornell 4-1-1
VIDEO: None
AUDIO: None
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.prestosports.com/bridgeport

GAME #8: NJIT at Cornell
DATE: Sunday, Sept. 22, 2013
TIME: 4 p.m.
SITE: Berman Field – Ithaca, N.Y. (grass surface)
2013 RECORDS (not including Friday's games): NJIT 3-5, Cornell 4-1-1
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 2005, thanks to its current four-game unbeaten streak – which is the program's first since it rattled off six straight wins to start that 2005 campaign. The Big Red's four wins this season has already surpassed its win total from the last two seasons combined. … Sophomore forward Caroline Growney scored both goals in a 2-0 victory over Binghamton on Wednesday, wrapping up a perfect three-game home stand. Freshman goalkeeper Kelsey Tierney made three saves for her first collegiate shutout, and the team's third clean sheet in just six games. Last weekend, senior Rachel Nichols converted a penalty kick in the ninth minute of overtime to spur a 2-1 victory over Marist on Friday, then sophomore Brenna Mockler scored her first collegiate goal with 7.8 seconds remaining to give the Big Red a 5-4 win over Albany on Sunday. … Freshman Elizabeth Crowell had a monster seven-point effort in the two games last weekend to earn her both Ivy League Player of the Week and Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors. She is tied for the team scoring lead with Growney, who has a team-high three goals and one assist. Freshman Dempsey Banks has one goal and a team-leading four assists for six points.. … Senior Tori Christ (2-1-1, , 1.41 goals-against average, .500 save percentage, 1 SHO) and Tierney (2-0, 0.32, .917, 1 SHO) have each played four games in goal.
 
ABOUT CINCINNATI
The Bearcats have been idle since a 2-1 victory over Kent State on Sunday, which improved their record to 2-6. Cincinnati's other victory this season was a 4-1 decision over UMass-Lowell on Sept. 1. … Mackenzie Reynolds had a goal and an assist against Kent State to take the team scoring lead with two goals and one assist for five points. Jae Atkinson has one goal and two assists for four points, followed by Katy Couperas and Bailey Wilson with three points on a goal and an assist apiece. … The Bearcats have been using a goalkeeper rotation of Natalie Smith (1-3, 1.75, .632) and Kristina Utley (1-3, 3.00, .520), who have each played four games to date. Smith earned the win against Kent State. … Cincinnati is a perfect 2-0 at home, but 0-6 on the road. … Bearcats opponents have scored 15 of their 19 goals this season in the second half.
 
ABOUT NJIT
The Highlanders have won consecutive games for the first time since October 2010, defeating VMI and Rider last weekend at its home field. Sophomore goalkeeper Samantha Bersett made a combined six saves for the two shutouts. Rebecca Tustin scored the winner in the sixth minute against VMI, then set up Megan Dellavalle for the first goal in the 12th minute against Rider. Kaelyn Gamel then scored her second goal of the season, bringing her into a tie with Tustin for the scoring lead with four points. Dellavalle has a goal and an assist for three points, and Dana Schules, Abi Fakolujo and Camille Billing have scored NJIT's other goals this season. … Bersett has played in all 28 games since arriving at NJIT, posting a 2-5 record to go with a 1.75 goals-against average and .714 save percentage this year.
 
HOWDY STRANGER
This weekend's games mark the first meetings between Cornell and Cincinnati, and Cornell and NJIT.
 
HEAD COACH PATRICK FARMER
Now in his 21st season as a head coach in the NCAA, Patrick Farmer is in 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 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.
 
AND THE WINNER IS …
Freshman Elizabeth Crowell was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week and the Ivy League Player of the Week on Monday after a dominating performance over the weekend with two goals and three assists against Marist and Albany. Crowell became the first Big Red player with three assists in a game since Amy Snow on Sept. 15, 1991. Crowell is the program's first Ivy League Player of the Week since Maneesha Chitanvis on Oct. 8, 2012, and the first Rookie of the Week since senior Mary Keroack on Sept. 6, 2010.
 
SPOT DUTY
Senior Rachel Nichols' overtime goal Sept. 13 against Marist was the Big Red's first converted peanlty kick since Sept. 5, 2010, when Caedran Harvey scored her first collegiate goal from the spot in a 7-0 win over Delaware State. Cornell had not been awarded a penalty kick since Sept. 14, 2011 in a game against Binghamton.
 
YOUTH IS SERVED
The Big Red had six of its seven goals and all five of its assists last weekend produced by freshmen or sophomores. In all, 24 of Cornell's 29 points this season have been produced by underclassmen, with one goal and one assist coming from a senior (Rachel Nichols), and one goal coming from a junior (Kerry Schubert).
 
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. She 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 goal of her collegiate career. MacManus is also a midfielder on the women's lacrosse team.
 
BREAKDOWN
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 begin its seven-game Ivy League schedule at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27 against Columbia at Berman Field. The Big Red then hits the road the following weekend for an Ivy contest at Penn on Oct. 4, then its non-league finale on Oct. 6 at Delaware State.