GAME INFORMATION
GAME #9: Penn at Cornell
DATE: Friday, Oct. 3, 2014
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Charles F. Berman Field – Ithaca, N.Y. (natural surface)
2014 RECORDS: Cornell 5-3 (0-1 Ivy); Penn 3-2-2 (0-1 Ivy)
AUDIO: Big Red Digital
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com

ABOUT THE BIG RED
In search of its first winning season in 12 years, Cornell got off to a strong start with five victories and one tough overtime loss in its first six games. The Big Red then hit a speed bump last weekend, suffering a pair of one-goal losses. On Friday night, the squad opened its Ivy League slate at Columbia, losing 1-0 on a second-half goal by the Lions' Coleen Rizzo. The Big Red then responded by territorially dominating Sunday's home against Wagner, but the Seahawks proved opportunistic in a 2-1 victory. The loss marked the first time Cornell lost a game in which it held a lead in nearly two years. … Sophomore midfielder Elizabeth Crowell (four goals, two assists) and junior forward Caroline Growney (three goals, four assists) share the team scoring lead with 10 points apiece. Sophomore forward Meera Marhoefer ranks third with three points on a goal and an assist. The Big Red's lone goal last weekend was a Wagner own goal on Growney's attempted cross to Crowell. … The Big Red is in position to continue building off a strong 2013 campaign. 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 letterwinners 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 PENN
Like the Big Red, the Quakers enter Friday's game on the heels of being shut out in their league opener. Penn battled with defending champion Harvard last Saturday, surrendering three second-half goals in a 3-0 loss at Rhodes Field. Penn's only other loss this season came by an identical score against William & Mary on Sept. 14. Otherwise, goals have been scarce in typically physical Quakers games. The team has scored just six times in seven games (including one own goal), and Lindsey Sawczuk leads the team in scoring with three points on one goal and one assist. Kristen Miller, Anna Estep, Ana Chevtchenko and Kaitlyn Moore have the other Penn goals this season. Kalijah Terilli had a 2-2-1 record, 1.39 goals-against average and .741 save percentage in seven appearances. Katherine Myhre has also played in five games (1-0-1, 0.80, .714).
 
THE SERIES WITH PENN
Penn rides a 15-game series winning streak coming into the game with Cornell, extending its all-time lead to 16-6-1 last season when a penalty-kick goal provided all of the offense in a 1-0 affair at Rhodes Field. The Big Red won the first six meetings between the teams from 1991-96.
 
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 274-122-42 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.
 
CROWELL ON A ROLL
Sophomore midfielder Elizabeth Crowell has a pair of two-goal games to her credit this season and is just one point shy of her entire 2013 total. 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, being tabbed as an All-Ivy Second Team selection in each of the last two seasons. One of the team's best aerial threats, MacManus has now scored one goal in each of her 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 28 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 seven 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
Cornell returns to non-league play, travelling to nearby Colgate for a contest at 7 p.m. Monday. The game kicks off a stretch of three straight on the road, followed by trips to defending Ivy League champion Harvard on Saturday, Oct. 11 and Saint Bonaventure on Monday, Oct. 13.