ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's soccer team plays its penultimate game of the season at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, when it plays host to Princeton at Berman Field.
 
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #16: Princeton at Cornell
DATE: Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014
TIME: 2:30 p.m.
SITE: Charles F. Berman Field – Ithaca, N.Y. (natural surface)
2014 RECORDS: Cornell 7-8 (1-4 Ivy); Princeton 5-5-3 (2-2-1 Ivy)
AUDIO: www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com/cornell/schedule?tid=8
LIVE STATS: www.sidearmstats.com/cornell/wsoc
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
In search of its first winning season in 12 years, Cornell will need to win its final two games of the season to accomplish that feat after Sunday's 2-0 loss at Brown. The Big Red conceded two first-half goals and never recovered, with the Bears' goalkeeper making five for the shutout. The Big Red has dropped five of its last six games, and three in a row in Ivy League play. … Cornell is 1-4 in Ivy League play, and a win Saturday would give the program two league victories for the first time since 2002. A victory would also give the Big Red its most victories in a season since that same year. … Sophomore midfielder Elizabeth Crowell leads the team in scoring with six goals and two assists for 14 points. Junior forward Caroline Growney and her four goals and team-high five assists rank second at 13 points, which is two off the career high she set last season (7-1—15). After scoring twice Oct. 6 at St. Bonaventure, senior forward Schubert is now third in team scoring with three goals for six points. … Cornell was 7-8-1 last season, which featured more than double the program's win totals from the 2011 and 2012 seasons combined. Cornell had at least five victories in its first six games for the first time since 2005. … Continuity is strong with 17 of 23 letter winners returning from last season, plus a group of newcomers yielding a few new starters. Despite the strong group of incumbents, the team still has a younger slant. There are just four seniors on the roster — including co-captains Sydney Cetrullo and Claire MacManus. … The top three scorers and 10 of the 12 players who had points last season are back with the Big Red in 2014.
 
ABOUT PRINCETON
The Tigers' Ivy League title hopes were essentially dashed last Saturday when they lost a wild 5-4 affair against league-leading Harvard. Sophomore Tyler Lussi scored all four goals for Princeton, which twice had the lead before Harvard's Midge Purce scored the winner on a penalty kick in the 81st minute. … Lussi leads the team with 15 goals and an assist for 31 points. She ranks No. 2 in the country in goals per game and No. 3 in points per game. Senior Lauren Lazo has six goals and seven assists for 19 points. Add sophomore Haley Chow and her three goals to the equation, and the trio has scored 24 of the team's 26 goals this season. … Darcy Hargadon has played 11 of the Tigers' 13 games, sporting a 4-3-3 record with a 1.39 goals-against average, .650 save percentage and one clean sheet.
 
THE SERIES WITH PRINCETON
The Tigers own a 22-7-4 advantage in the all-time series, having won a 4-0 affair last year. Princeton won a bizarre game in 2011 after an early-season snow storm wreaked havoc on the mid-Atlantic coast and forced the two teams to play on a field traditionally reserved for field hockey use. Princeton is currently riding an 18-game winning streak in the series, including overtime victories in 2009 and 2010. Cornell played Princeton in its first game on the varsity level in 1982.
 
HEAD COACH PATRICK FARMER
Now in his 22nd season as a head coach in the NCAA, Patrick Farmer is in his third season as the Cornell women's soccer program's fifth head coach. Farmer came 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. Farmer has amassed a 276-127-42 record at Cornell, 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 fourth season as an assistant coach, and Dwight Hornibrook is in his third season as an assistant coach after serving as the head coach of SUNY Cortland men's soccer for eight years.
 
BEEN THERE, DONE THAT
Junior forward Caroline Growney was named Ivy League Player of the Week on Oct. 6 after helping the Big Red to a 3-2 victory over Penn the week before with a goal and an assist. Growney also earned the honor on Sept. 8, which makes her the first Cornellian to win the Ivy honor twice in the same season since 1997. A hard-nosed forward, Growney has also proven to be durable in her time with the Big Red. A three-year starter, the New Mexico export has appeared in all 44 of Cornell's games since her arrival on East Hill in 2012.
 
CROWELL ON A ROLL
Sophomore midfielder Elizabeth Crowell has a pair of two-goal games to her credit this season and has already topped her point total from her freshman campaign. Her first two goals this season were both banked off the woodwork and into the net during a 5-0 rout of Virginia Military Institute on Sept. 12. Two days later, Crowell assisted on the Big Red's lone goal in a double-overtime loss to Temple. She was not only named to the Big Red Shootout All-Tournament Team, but she was tied for most votes received. She led the tournament in scoring with five points.
 
TOPS IN THE TOURNEY
After finishing in second place in the Big Red Shootout on Sept. 12 and Sept. 14, the Big Red had three players voted to the event's all-tournament team — junior forward Caroline Growney, sophomore midfielder Elizabeth Crowell and junior defender Charlotte Tate.
 
ON TO THE NEXT CENTURY
In the same year Cornell University is celebrating its sesquicentennial, the women's soccer team has celebrated a slightly bigger number. The Big Red registered the 200th victory of the program's history of 32-plus years last Friday with a 3-2 victory against Buffalo at Berman Field. Opponents for some other milestones include Hamilton in 1982 (first), Yale in 1988 (50th), Colgate in 1994 (100th), Wagner in 2002 (150th) and now Buffalo in 2014 (200th).
 
QUICK STARTERS
Cornell has enjoyed great success in the 33 season openers in the program's history, picking up a 19-10-4 mark in the first game of the season. That trend continued this season with a dramatic 1-0 victory Sept. 4 at Massachusetts on the strength of junior forward Caroline Growney's 110th-minute goal. Sophomore midfielder Elizabeth Crowell assisted on the strike, and sophomore goalkeeper Kelsey Tierney made six saves for her third career shutout.
 
A CALL TO ARMBANDS
Senior midfielder Claire MacManus and senior defender Sydney Cetrullo are the Big Red's co-captains this season. It's just the second time in the last eight years that the Big Red has had fewer than three captains, with 2011 (Abigail Apistolas and Sidra Bonner) and 2009 (Katie Hayes and Lena Russomagno) being the other occurrences in that span.
 
ALOHA!
Last season, forward Dempsey Banks and midfielder Elizabeth Crowell gave the Big Red two freshmen with at least 10 points in a season for just the second time in program history and the first time since 1988. Banks' total of 12 points ranked ninth all-time in freshman scoring. She joined the Big Red by way of 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. Crowell joined the Big Red immediately after her sister, Megan Crowell '13, concluded her playing career at Cornell as a four-time letterwinner.
 
SHE'S HONORED
Senior midfielder Claire MacManus has been recognized for being one of the top defensive midfielders in the Ivy League, as she has been tabbed as an All-Ivy Second Team selection in each of the last two seasons. One of the team's best aerial threats, MacManus scored one goal in each of her first three seasons on East Hill. Her latest strike was the game-winner against Delaware State on Oct. 6, 2013. MacManus is also a midfielder on the women's lacrosse team, being named to the All-Ivy League Second Team in that sport as well.
 
YOUTH IS SERVED
The Big Red is carrying a roster of 27 players this season, but only four are seniors. All four of the fourth-year players — Kelly Abrams, Sydney Cetrullo, Claire MacManus, Kerry Schubert — have started at some point in their careers. There are also five juniors, eight sophomores and nine freshmen on the roster. Of Cornell's 66 points last season, 49 were produced by underclassmen and 54 were produced by returning players to the squad this season.

NATIONAL APPEAL
The Big Red has 13 different states and the District of Columbia represented on the team roster, with its home state of New York claiming eight players. Cornell has three players that hail from Pennsylvania and California, two each from New Jersey, Ohio and Illinois, and single representatives from Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

UP NEXT
The Big Red will honors its four seniors — Kelly Abrams, Sydney Cetrullo, Claire MacManus and Kerry Schubert — at its season finale against Dartmouth at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8 at Berman Field.