ITHACA, N.Y. – Men's soccer heads to Western New York for a pair of non-conference games against the University at Buffalo and Niagara University on Friday and Sunday in the final weekend of preparation before beginning its Ivy League title defense against conference foes.   

GAME INFORMATION
GAME #8: Cornell at Buffalo
DATE & TIME:  Friday, Sept. 27 at 5 p.m.
SITE: UB Stadium (Buffalo, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD:  Buffalo leads 4-3-0
LAST MEETING: Sept. 9, 2012; Cornell won 4-0
2013 RECORDS*: Cornell (5-0-2), Buffalo (1-4-3)
LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO
 
GAME #9: Cornell at Niagara
DATE & TIME: Sunday, Sept. 29 at 2 p.m.
SITE: Niagara Field (Niagara University, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Niagara leads 1-0-0
LAST MEETING: Sept. 2, 2011; Niagara won 3-1
2013 RECORDS*: Cornell (5-0-2), Niagara (1-6)
LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO
 
*Records accurate as of Sept. 26.
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
After playing four of its last five games at home, the Big Red will be away from Berman Field for more than two weeks heading first to Western New York for its final two non-conference games before opening Ivy League play on Oct. 5 at Penn. Thanks to Tuesday's draw with Lafayette, Cornell remains unbeaten in its last 24 non-conference regular season matchups with a 19-0-5 record during that span. The streak dates back to a 1-1 draw with the Leopards on September 6, 2011.
 
HEAD COACH JARO ZAWISLAN
After taking over a program that was 1-15 the season before his appointment as head coach, Jaro Zawislan has steadily improved men's soccer at Cornell; transforming an eight-place team into Ivy League Champions and coaching the Big Red to the program's best season in nearly two decades. Zawislan, a native of Poland, now holds a 38-18-18 record after Tuesday's draw with Lafayette. He played soccer for four years at Clemson and then spent time professionally in the United States and Poland.
 
ABOUT BUFFALO
Buffalo is coming off its first win of the season after beating Cleveland State 1-0 on Sunday, Sept. 22 with help from a Russell Cicerone penalty kick in the 84th minute. Cicerone has scored three of the team's five goals this season. Not unlike Cornell, the Bulls are a young team, with 12 of the 23 rostered players listed as freshman. They've been held scoreless four times this season and have scored five goals through eight contests.
 
ABOUT NIAGARA
Niagara has been shutout in each of its last four games and has gone 386:26 since last scoring a goal. The team's lone victory so far this season came in the form of a 4-1 rout of UMass-Lowell on Sept. 6.  Freshman Nicholas Watson has factored in to each of the Purple Eagles' five goals this season, scoring two while assisting on the other three.  Niagara has 12 international student-athletes on its roster this season representing Canada, England, Germany, Guam, Greece and Sweden.
 
FINISHING TOUCHES
The Big Red has had more than its fair share of scoring opportunities in the early part of the 2013 season taking 99 shots, but has struggled to convert those chances into points. Through the first eight games last season the team amassed 23 goals, compared to nine goals in seven games to date in 2013.
 
ZERO ZERO
In addition to the zeroes on the score sheet in Tuesday's contest, the green 00 goalkeeper jersey made its first appearance of the season. Senior Kurtis Teskoski made the first start in goal of his Big Red career against Lafayette and made two saves. Prior to Tuesday, Teskoski had only appeared in two other games for Cornell, both last season, when he played at forward.
 
IVY HONORS
Junior defender Peter Chodas earned co-player of the week honors earlier this week from the Ivy League after a one goal, one assist week in which he was instrumental in both Big Red wins. Chodas picked up an assist on Jake Kirsch's game-tying goal against Binghamton, while also starting the play that lead to Jake Rinow's game-winning goal. Additionally, Chodas scored the only goal in the Big Red's win at St. Joseph's over the weekend.

BACK TO BACK TO BACK
The Big Red opened the 2013 season with three straight overtime games; the last time a Cornell men's soccer team played in three straight games needing more than 90 minutes was in September 2006 against Buffalo, Boston University and Columbia.  

SENIOR LEADERSHIP
For the second season in a row the Big Red has three captains, as Jake Rinow, Patrick Slogic and Benjamin Williams have assumed the role for their senior seasons. Slogic is coming off a First Team All-Ivy season in 2012 and was named to the MAC Hermann watch list and as a contender for the Senior CLASS Award in the weeks prior to the 2013 season.
 
FRESH FACES
Cornell added 13 newcomers to the roster for the 2013 campaign, many of whom will challenge the veteran players for playing time throughout the year. Goalkeeper Evan King, midfielder Madison Heck and midfield/forward hybrid Sebastian Scales all come to East Hill from Eastside FC in Washington State.
 
AIN'T THAT AMERICA
Nearly all of the players on this season's roster hail from one of 12 states, as California, New York and Washington each claim claiming four players. The Big Red has three players from New Jersey, two from both Colorado and Indiana and one from Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan and Nebraska. Freshman JJ Black hails from Cambridge, England.  
 
UP NEXT
The Big Red will travel to Philadelphia to face Penn in its Ivy League opener on Saturday, Oct. 5 at 7 p.m.