ITHACA, N.Y. — Cornell men's soccer opens its 2015 campaign this holiday weekend with a pair of road games against Patriot League opponents. The team will look to build off the momentum it has accumulated from four consecutive winning seasons under head coach Jaro Zawislan.
                          
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #1: Cornell Big Red at Lafayette Leopards
WHEN:  Friday, Sept.  4, 2015, 7 p.m.
WHERE: Oaks Stadium – Easton, Penn.
2015 RECORDS: Cornell 0-0, Lafayette 1-0-1
LIVE STATS: GoLeopards.com
STREAMING VIDEO:  Patriot League Network
 
GAME #2: Cornell Big Red at Lehigh Mountain Hawks
WHEN: Monday, Sept. 7, 2015, 7 p.m.
WHERE: Ulrich Sports Complex – Bethlehem, Penn.
2015 RECORDS (not including Friday's game): Cornell 0-0, Lehigh 2-1
LIVE STATS: LehighSports.com
STREAMING VIDEO: Patriot League Network
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell men's soccer won its season finale against Columbia last season, 1-0, to earn the team's 10th win of the year, the second time in three seasons that the Big Red notched double digits in the win column. The team has posted a record above .500 its past four seasons, the team's longest such streak since it posted eight consecutive winning seasons from 1970-77 … The Big Red has a junior-heavy roster this season, returning a wealth of experience in all positions. The newcomers to the team, six freshmen and a transfer from Boston University, will add depth across the field and in net.
 
ABOUT LAFAYETTE
The Lafayette Leopards, who were chosen 10th in the Patriot League Preseason Poll, began their season last weekend with a 0-0 double overtime draw with Pittsburgh and a 3-0 win over Fairleigh Dickinson. Senior Todd Forrester notched his first career goal and first career assist in the win over FDU. Senior Eric West, who notched five goals for the Leopards last season, returns up top, while junior Ryan Egan, who had two goals and an assist, will be back in the midfield. Lafayette closed the 2014 season at 6-10-2 overall and 2-7 in the Patriot League.
 
THE SERIES WITH LAFAYETTE
The Leopards and the Big Red met last season, when Cornell fought to a 1-0 double-overtime win on Sept. 10, 2014. Lafayette has been on Cornell's schedule every year since 2008 and the Big Red is 4-5-3 all-time against the Leopards.
 
ABOUT LEHIGH
The Lehigh Mountain Hawks were predicted to finish fifth in the Patriot League in the 2015 preseason poll and have opened their season with a pair of wins over Fairleigh Dickinson (3-0) and Manhattan (1-0) and a 3-0 loss to Pittsburgh. Senior Jamie Luchini and junior Justin Worley were named to the preseason All-Patriot League team. Luchini, who had a goal in the Mountain Hawks' 1-0 win over Manhattan and an assist in the 3-0 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson, was Lehigh's leading scorer in 2014 with six goals and eight assists, earning him second team All-Patriot League honors. Worley was also named to the second team last season after playing all 90 minutes on defense in all but one game. The Mountain Hawks are led by a core group of seven seniors and are returning 87.5 percent of their scoring, but the team will be faced with replacing All-League selections in net and on the backline.  The team finished 10-8-1 overall in 2014 and 5-3-1 in Patriot League play, earning them the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament.
 
THE SERIES WITH LEHIGH
The Big Red holds an 8-7-3 advantage all-time against the Mountain Hawks. The teams last met on Sept. 2, 2005, when Lehigh beat Cornell 1-0.
 
ABOUT HEAD COACH JARO ZAWISLAN
Zawislan, now in his seventh season at the helm of Big Red men's soccer, has posted a winning record for four consecutive seasons, earning him a spot among the top coaches in the Ivy League.  He has led Cornell to 10+ wins in two of the past three seasons and also directed the Big Red to its first Ivy League title since 1995 and first outright title since 1977 in 2012. The Class of 2015, under Zawislan, posted the second-most career wins (41) of any senior class in program history. Zawislan currently holds a 51-29-10 coaching record at Cornell, good for a .622 winning percentage, the second best in school history … Zawislan is a graduate of Clemson University '93, where he was a four-year starter in goal. Before pursuing a career in coaching, he played professionally both in the United States and his native Poland. After spending time as an assistant coach at Stanford, Creighton and Syracuse, Zawislan was named Cornell's 11th head coach in 2009.
 
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
The Big Red has been a force to be reckoned with defensively over the past three seasons. In 2014, the team allowed just 11 goals, tying the program record set the previous year. Cornell also set a new program mark with 11 clean sheets on the season.  Juniors Ralph Lee Price IV and Liam Crotty and sophomore Eric Nuss will return to the solid backline, which will look to fill the role of graduated First Team All-Ivy defender Peter Choads and Second Team All-Ivy selection Devin Morgan.
 
JUNIOR ARMY
After graduating seven seniors after last season, the Big Red has just two seniors on the team, Ben Feldman and Stevin Bienfait. The team includes 13 juniors, meaning the Class of 2017 makes up exactly half of this season's roster.  Five sophomores and six freshmen round out the squad.
 
FREE SOCCER
In both 2013 and 2014, the Big Red's first three games of the season have needed extra time. Cornell opened the 2013 season with a 1-1 double-overtime draw with University of Detroit Mercy, followed by a pair of 2-1 wins: against Hartwick in two overtimes and California State at Fullerton in one extra frame. In 2014, the Big Red tied then-second-ranked Louisville, 0-0, in double overtime, fell to national power Xavier, 1-0, in single overtime, and beat Lafayette, 1-0 in a second extra period. 
 
ACROSS STATE LINES
Cornell men's soccer is a diverse group, with players hailing from 13 different states and England. Six players come from New York, while five make the trip to Ithaca from the west coast — two from California and three from Washington state. JJ Black is a transatlantic transplant, coming to the Big Red from Cambridge, England.
 
UP NEXT
After the contests at Lafayette and Lehigh, the Big Red will return to Pennsylvania for the Duquesne Invitational, where they will take on Cleveland State on Sept. 11 at 4 p.m. and Oregon State on Sept. 13 at 11 a.m. Cornell has faced both programs just once in school history.