MATCH INFORMATION
MATCH #18: Cornell vs. Columbia
MATCH TIME: Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016; 2:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Newman Arena (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 50-13
LAST MEETING: Columbia won, 3-2; Sept. 24, 2016
2016 RECORDS: Cornell (8-9, 2-5 Ivy); Columbia (10-7, 5-2 Ivy)
LIVE STATS: http://www.sidearmstats.com/cornell/wvball/
LIVE VIDEO: http://www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com/cornell
 
THE MATCHUP: The Big Red volleyball team opens the second half of Ivy League play when it welcomes Columbia to Newman Arena on Saturday, Oct. 22 at 2 p.m. Cornell went 2-1 last week, with a pair of 3-2 victories at Binghamton and Harvard to improve to 8-9 overall and 2-5 in the Ivy League. The Lions are off to its best Ivy League start since the 2011 season, entering the second half of play with a 10-7 record overall and a mark of 5-2 in the conference. Stats will be available at www.CornellBigRed.com and the contest will be streamed live on the Ivy League Digital Network.
 
THE SERIES VS. COLUMBIA: The Big Red and the Lions have played 63 times dating back to 1977, with Cornell holding a dominating 50-13 record in the all-time series. The Big Red halted a four-match losing streak against the Lions during the 2013 season with a series sweep. The teams have split the series in each of the past two years and Columbia won the first match earlier this season.
 
LAST TIME VS. THE LIONS: The Big Red jumped out to a two-set lead, but Columbia stormed back to win the final three, taking the match, 3-2 (25-14, 25-22, 25-27, 21-25, 9-15), on Sept. 24 at Levien Gym. The game was Cornell's first five-set match of the season. The Big Red had a well balanced attack with Carla Sganderlla (19), Kit McCarty (11) and Maddy Sroufe (10) all reaching double-digits, while Jenna Phelps finished with nine kills and a team-best .333 hitting percentage. Sophomore Gabby Goodall posted a career-high 26 assists, while senior Alyssa Phelps had 22 on the day. Goodall and Phelps also finished with 12 and 10 digs, respectively, while freshman libero Lily Barber had a team-high 15 and junior Kiley McPeek chipped in 12. Columbia (6-5, 1-0) was led by Ara Peterson (15-2-1-21) and Anja Malesevic (13-9-42), while Zoe Jacobs and Lauren Wilkins had eight kills apiece. Setter Grace Campbell tallied 53 assists, while the 2015 Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year Cassie Wes finished with 31 digs.
 
SCOUTING COLUMBIA: After losing its first there matches of the season, the Lions rebounded to close non-conference play with a 5-5 record and have gone 5-2 in the Ivy League. Columbia freshman Chichi Ikwuazom has proved to be a force, leading the Ivy League in both hitting percentage (.449) and blocks (1.42), while ranking seventh overall in kills per set (2.83). Setter Grace Campbell leads the conference in assists per game (10.25) and the reigning Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year, Cassie Wes is posting a circuit-best 5.30 digs per contest.
 
THE HEAD COACH: Trudy Vande Berg is in her second season as The Wendy Schaenen '79 Head Coach Of Volleyball at Cornell (14-27, .341) ... Vande Berg became the 11th head coach in Cornell volleyball history in March 2015 after spending three seasons as the Big Red's top assistant coach ... Prior to her time at Cornell, Vande Berg spent time as an assistant coach at North Florida, Duke, and Iowa State and as a volunteer assistant at Wisconsin. She also served as head coach of the Team Iowa Ice professional club in the Premier Volleyball League, where she guided the team to the championship in her second year at the helm.
 
NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS: With its 3-2 win over Binghamton, Cornell wrapped up its non-conference schedule with a 6-4 record, amassing the most non-conference wins in a season since 2006 (7) ... It also gave the Big Red its first winning record out of conference since the 2005 squad went 7-4 in non-league play.
 
FINISHING STRONG: Under second-year head coach Trudy Vande Berg, Cornell is 7-5 in matches that go five sets.
 
HEAVY HITTERS: The Big Red enters the week with a .222 hitting percentage, a mark that would be the sixth best in school history if the season ended today.
 
CLOSE LOSSES: Cornell has lost 19 sets in Ivy League play, nearly a third of which (six) have been by two points.
 
NCAA RANKINGS: Entering the week, Carla Sganderlla's .44 service aces per set ranks 27th in the nation.
 
IN THE IVY RANKINGS: Several Cornell players are raked in the top 10 of various Ivy League statistical categories, including:
* Macey Wilson – sixth in hitting percentage (.321)
* Kit McCarty – seventh in hitting percentage (.303)
* Jenna Phelps – ninth in hitting percentage (.287)
* Carla Sganderlla – sixth in kills per set (2.88)
* Kit McCarty – ninth in kills per set (2.71)
* Alyssa Phelps – fourth in assists per set (8.04)
* Carla Sganderlla – second in service aces per set (0.44)
* Lily Barber – ninth in digs per set (3.23)
 
TEAM IVY RANKINGS: As a team, Cornell ranks in the top half of the Ivy League rankings in:
* Assists (second – 12.17)
* Kills (second – 12.78)
* Hitting percentage (second – .222)
* Blocks (fourth – 1.96) 
 
SETTING UP: Senior Alyssa Phelps is just the third player in Big Red history to surpass 2,800 assists in a career, sitting third overall with 2,899 helpers. She needs just 29 more to surpass Vanessa Richlin '00 in second place (2,927).
 
BIG BLOCKER: Senior Macey Wilson ranks 15th in Cornell history for career solo blocks (44), needing just three more to move past Traci Mizoguchi '96 in 14th place. She is also fourth in block assists (284) and seventh in total blocks (328), needing nine and three, respectively, to move up a notch.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM:  Juniors Kit McCarty and Emily Wemnoff were named to the Cornell Invitational All-Tournament … Junior Maddy Sroufe was named to the UMKC Kangaroo Klassic All-Tournament Team … McCarty and sophomore Carla Sganderlla were name to the Bucknell Invitational All-Tournament Team. 
 
DID YOU KNOW:
* Alyssa Phelps is a research assistant in the Ophir Integrative Neuroethology Lab at Cornell … Alyssa and Jenna Phelps are sisters.
* Kiley McPeek has 10 relatives that are Cornell alumni. Her father, Jeff '82, played sprint football for the Big Red, while her great uncle Richard Boerner was a member of the Cornell heavyweight varsity eight that won the IRA national championship in 1958 … This past summer, she did an internship in Istanbul, Turkey and was in the country during the attempted coup d'état.
* Kit McCarty is one of eight children – she has four brothers and three sisters.
* Zoe Lequeux is a French citizen.
* Carla Sganderlla can speak Portuguese ... Her brother attends Cornell.
* Kara Rogers lived in Germany for a year … Her sister is a member of the Yale swimming team.
* Maddy Sroufe's younger sister plays volleyball at VCU.
* This past summer, Chelsea Sincox worked for Congressman Pete Olson … Last summer she interned at NASA.
* Jada Stackhouse is a distant cousin of 18-year NBA veteran Jerry Stackhouse.
 
SEASON OPENERS: With its win over Colgate on Sept. 3, Cornell improved to 29-14-1 all-time in season openers. Since 1995, the Big Red is an impressive 16-5 in the first match of the season ... Coach Vande Berg is a perfect 2-0 in season openers.
 
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: The Big Red added six freshmen – as Samanta Arenas, Lily Barber, Sophia Beaudoin, Jenna Phelps, Katie Randolph and Jada Stackhouse – to the roster for the 2016 season. The six student-athletes hail from six different states and the group consists of two middle blockers, two outside hitters, one setter, and one defensive specialist.
 
UP NEXT: The Big Red is on the road next weekend when it travels to Yale and Brown on Friday, Oct. 28 and Saturday, Oct. 29, respectively.