ITHACA, N.Y. — The men's soccer team will head to Providence on Sunday to take on Brown in an Ivy League contest. The team is in search of its first Ancient Eight win of the season.
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #14: Cornell Big Red at Brown Bears
WHEN: 1 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 23, 2016
WHERE: Stevenson-Pincince Field — Providence, R.I. (artificial surface)
2016 RECORDS: Cornell 1-10-2 (0-3-0 Ivy League), Brown 6-6-1 (1-1-1, Ivy League)
VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: BrownBears.com
LIVE UPDATES: @CUBigRedGameday
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is coming off of an Ivy League loss to Yale on Sunday afternoon at home. The teams played evenly throughout the first half, but Yale scored three goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half to take the game, 3-0. … The team earned its first win of the season on Tuesday night at Colgate, 3-2. Early in the second half, the Big Red received goals from
Ryan Watters and
Jonathan Cullom less than four minutes apart to take a 2-1 lead. Colgate answered back to tie the game at 2-2, but
Jack Ferguson converted a penalty kick in the 87th minute to give Cornell the victory. … Cornell played a challenging non-conference schedule in 2016 – one that included four games in six days. Cornell took on Binghamton on Wednesday, Sept.14, and tied the Bearcats, 1-1, in extra time. The Big Red then returned home for the CU Inaria Classic and played Saint Francis on Friday, Sept. 16 – going to a second overtime period before ultimately falling, 2-1 – and then took on New Hampshire on Sunday, Sept. 18, dropping the game, 2-0. Cornell finished out the four game week against No. 3 Syracuse and gave the Orange a tough test but ultimately fell, 3-1.
ABOUT HEAD COACH JOHN SMITH
Smith comes to East Hill after spending four years at Stanford, two as associate head coach. In 2015, Smith helped lead the Cardinal to its first national title in program history and an 18-2-3 record, the team's most wins since 2002. Smith, who worked primarily with Stanford's strikers, was named NSCAA Far West Region Assistant Coach of the Year in 2014. Prior to his time in Palo Alto, Smith amassed a 62-26-10 record in six seasons as the head coach of Division II power Incarnate Word and spent time as an assistant coach at CSU Bakersfield. Smith is a graduate of Rollins, where he was two-time All-American. He was selected 13th overall by the Columbus Crew in the 1997 MLS Draft and played for two years in the A-League. He was named the Cornell men's soccer program's 12th head coach in March 2016.
YOUNG BLOOD
The Big Red has seen several freshmen step into some big roles in their first season at Cornell.
Brady Dickens leads the Big Red in scoring with two goals and two assists for six points. Fellow striker
George Pedlow is fourth in scoring with two goals and one assist and earned Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors for Sept. 20-26. Freshman goalkeeper
Ryan Shellow has started nine games in goal for the Big Red and made 50 saves while
Riley Adams and
Christophe Gerlach have both logged over 645 minutes in the midfield and on the backline, respectively.
IRONMAN
Junior defender
Spencer Kopko is the only Big Red player to have played every single minute this season. The Ithaca native has logged 1,234 minutes – including two, 110 minute efforts in double-overtime battles against Central Connecticut State and Binghamton – through the first 13 games of the season.
SAVES BY SHELLOW
Freshman goalkeeper
Ryan Shellow set a program record when he made 13 saves in the game against Syracuse on Oct. 13. The 13 saves are the second-most made in a single game this year in the NCAA. Shellow has made 50 saves in 2016, which is second in the Ivy League.
AN ABUNDANCE OF OVERTIMES
The Big Red has played in five overtime games so far in 2016. In the first seven games that Cornell played this season, four of them went to overtime. The last – and only other time – the Big Red played in four overtime games through the first seven games played in a season came in 1995. Cornell went on to play in eight overtime games that year, the most in program history. The last season in which Cornell did not play in a single overtime game was 2008.
CAPTAIN'S ARMBANDS
Head coach
John Smith has selected senior
Zach Bialik and junior
Eric Nuss to serve as the Big Red's captains for the 2016 season. Bialik, a midfielder, logged more than 60 minutes on 10 occasions in 2015. Nuss has started on defense in all 44 games he's played over the last two seasons and logged a team-leading 1,450 minutes in 2015.
THE SERIES WITH BROWN
Last year's 1-0 loss at home dropped Cornell to 20-38-5 all-time against Brown, but when the Big Red visited Providence in 2014, they won 1-0 on a goal from junior co-captain
Eric Nuss.
ABOUT BROWN
Brown welcomed No. 3 Clemson to Providence on Sunday afternoon and lost, 2-0. The team currently sits in a tie with Yale for fourth place overall in the Ivy League standings. After opening up Ancient Eight play with a 1-1 tie against Columbia and then a 1-0 win over Princeton, the Bears lost to Harvard, 1-0, on Friday. … Nico Lozada leads the Bears with 10 points on two goals and six assists, while Matthew Chow has scored a team-high four goals and put a team-high 13 shots on frame. … Erik Hanson has started all but two games for Brown, posting a .776 save percentage, three shutouts, and a 0.94 goals against average.
UP NEXT
Cornell returns to Berman Field next weekend to take on Princeton on Saturday, Oct. 29 and then takes on Dartmouth a week later on Nov. 5 in the final home
