ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's hockey team will begin the regular season this weekend with a pair of non-conference home games on Friday and Saturday against rival and perennial contender Mercyhurst. The Big Red and Lakers have met three times in the NCAA tournament since 2009.

GAME #1: Cornell Big Red vs. Mercyhurst Lakers
TIME: 3 p.m.
DATE: Friday, Oct. 21, 2016
PLACE: Lynah Rink — Ithaca, N.Y.
LIVE VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
LIVE UDPATES: @CUBigRedGameday
 
GAME #2: Cornell Big Red vs. Mercyhurst Lakers
TIME: 3 p.m.
DATE: Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016
PLACE: Lynah Rink — Ithaca, N.Y.
LIVE VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
LIVE UDPATES: @CUBigRedGameday
 
RECORDS: Cornell 0-0-0 (0-0-0 ECAC Hockey), Mercyhurst (1-2-1, 0-0-0 CHA)*
 
* - records do not include Friday's results
 
Cornell Game Notes (PDF) | Mercyhurst Game Notes (PDF)

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell skated to a 10-0 exhibition win over Carleton University of Canada on Friday night, scoring four power-play goals and two shorthand goals in the victory. Senior Hanna Bunton and freshman Paige Lewis each had two goals while junior Erin O'Connor added one goal and two assists. … The team enters the 2016-17 season looking to return to the ECAC Hockey playoffs for the 10th straight year and get back the championship game for the seventh time in eight years. The team returns three of its top five scorers including a pair of seniors in leading scorer Hanna Bunton and co-captain Kaitlin Doering. Sophomore defenseman and co-captain Micah Hart was named to the preseason All-ECAC team and returns to the point as the Big Red's fourth-leading point getter from a season ago. In goal the team returns senior Paula Voorheis, who posted two shutouts a year ago, along with sophomore Marlene Boissonnault, who went 5-1 in six decisions last year.
 
ABOUT MERCYHURST
Merychurst enters this weekend's series having played the first four games of the season against teams ranked in the national polls. The Lakers opened up the season at home with two games against No. 9 North Dakota, dropping the first game, 3-1, before pushing the Hawks to a 1-1 overtime tie the next night. Last weekend, the team welcomed No. 3 Quinnipiac to town for a pair of games. The Lakers got their first win of the season, 3-2, in the first game and then lost, 1-0, in overtime in the series finale. … After their successful weekend against the Bobcats, Mercyhurst received votes in both polls … The Lakers were ranked second in the College Hockey America Preseason Coaches Poll. … Goaltender Jessica Convery has twice earned CHA Goalie of the Week honors this season. The junior has a 1.06 goals against average and a .953 save percentage. … The Lakers have 10 different players with a point and five different players with one goal. Brook Hartwick (1g, 2a) and Megan Whiddon (3a) are tied for the team-lead in points. … Last season, the team won the CHA regular season title and the CHA tournament championship.
 
THE SERIES WITH MERCYHURST
Despite not playing in the same division, these two teams have a heated rivalry as they have met three times in the NCAA tournament. Cornell's first ever win against Mercyhurst came in the semi-finals of the 2009 NCAA tournament, with the Big Red winning 3-2 in overtime. The team also lost to Mercyhurst in the first round of the 2013 NCAA tournament, suffering a heartbreaking 4-3 overtime loss. The Big Red lost to Mercyhurst, 3-2, in the quarterfinal round of the 2014 NCAA tournament. … The team's first met during the 2001-02 season and Mercyhurst holds an all-time record of 16-7-3 against Cornell. … Last year, Cornell traveled to Erie, Pa. for a pair of games and split, losing the first game, 5-1, before coming back the next night to top the Lakers, 6-1. … Under head coach Doug Derraugh, Cornell is 7-10-3 against Mercyhurst.
 
ABOUT HEAD COACH DOUG DERRAUGH '91
Now entering his 12th season directing the Cornell women's hockey program in 2016-17, Doug Derraugh has brought the Big Red women to their place among the nation's elite. Derraugh has a 202-126-28 record in his first 11 seasons as the head coach of the Big Red, with his 200th win coming in the form of a 4-2 win last year against Yale. Cornell has made the ECAC Hockey Tournament each of the last nine seasons, won the tournament four of the last seven years and advanced to the NCAA Tournament in five of those seasons. Derraugh guided the Big Red to the national title game in his fifth season and back-to-back-to-back NCAA Frozen Four appearances in 2010, 2011 and 2012. He led the team to five consecutive 20-win seasons for the first time in program history in 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-2014.
 
BIG RED REWIND
Cornell finished the 2015-16 season with a 13-14-4 record, which was good enough to make the ECAC Hockey tournament for the ninth straight year, but the team bowed out in the quarterfinal round to an eventual Frozen Four team in Clarkson. Hanna Bunton led the Big Red in scoring with 13 goals and 14 assists for 27 points while Jess Brown and Kaitlin Doering finshed second and third, respectively. Paula Voorheis went 8-12-3 between the pipes and posted a 2.38 goals against average and a .915 save percentage. In six decisions, Marlène Boissonnault went 5-1 with a 3.02 goals against average and a .882 save percentage.
 
MEET THE CAPTAINS
Senior Kaitlin Doering and sophomore Micah Hart will be serving as Cornell's captains for the 2016-17 season. Doering is coming off of a 2015-16 season in which she set a career high with 18 points on seven goals and 11 assists. Hart led all Big Red defensemen last year with 18 points on one goal and 17 assists, finished the season with six multi-point outings and was second on the team with 56 blocked shots. Hart is just the fourth sophomore to don a letter in program history and the second to serve as a captain.
 
PRESEASON HONOR
Sophomore defenseman Micah Hart was named to the preseason All-ECAC team. Cornell last had a representative on the preseason all-conference team prior to the 2014-15 season when both Jill Saulnier and Brianne Jenner were selected.
 
AND THEN THERE WERE FIVE
When Cornell heads out west the day after Thanksgiving to play Wisconsin, it will be the first-ever meeting between the two storied programs. It will also drop the number of teams in Division I NCAA hockey that Cornell has never played down to five. The Big Red has yet to take the ice against two other WCHA teams in Minnesota State and North Dakota as well as two CHA teams in Lindenwood and Penn State. Merrimack, which joined Division I play in Hockey East at the beginning of the 2015-16 season, is the fifth team that Cornell has not played.   
 
THE 100 CLUB
At the beginning of the 2016-17 season, two Big Red skaters are sitting less than five games away from hitting the 100 career games played mark. Senior Sydney Smith has donned the Cornell sweater 98 times through her first three seasons while senior co-captain Kaitlin Doering has suited up for 96 games. Meanwhile, senior forward Hanna Bunton has skated in 91 games wearing Cornellian red and white. Alyssa Gagliardi '13 holds the all-time record for games played in a career with 138.
 
SAVES AND SHUTOUTS
With just one more save, senior goaltender Paula Voorheis will tie Lauren Slebodnick '13 for fourth all-time in program history with 1,668 saves. Alanna Hayes '98 sits first with 2,381 saves. Voorheis, who made a career-high 47 saves against Clarkson in Game 2 of the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals last year, made a total of 822 saves during the 2014-15 season, which is tops in single-season program history. Voorheis also sits tied for fifth all-time with seven shutouts, two behind Hayes' who sits fourth with nine and 16 behind Amanda Mazzotta '12, who owns the record with 22.
 
MEET THE NEW KIDS
The Class of 2020 makes up 37 percent of the Big Red roster this year and consists of six forwards and one defenseman. Grace Graham, Hanna Mutschelknaus, Valérie Audet, Paige Lewis, Kristin O'Neill and Amy Curlew will play up front, while Jaime Bourbonnais will patrol the blue line. Graham, Audet, O'Neill, Curlew and Bourbonnais all hail from Canada while Mutschelknaus and Lewis come from South Dakota and Connecticut, respectively.
 
FIVE PLAYERS, SIX MEDALS
Entering the 2016-17 season, the Big Red has five players on the roster who have earned a collective six medals for Team Canada at the IIHF U-18 World Championships. Hanna Bunton assisted on the game-winning goal in overtime of the 2013 gold medal game. Micah Hart captained a 2015 squad that included Marlène Boissonnault and Kristin O'Neill to a silver medal, while O'Neill and Jaime Bourbonnais earned silver medals at the 2016 competition.
 
23 AND COUNTING
With the arrival of South Dakota native Hanna Mutschelknaus on East Hill, the number of states from which Cornell players have hailed since the inaugural 1972-73 season rises to 23. Alaska, Colorado, Maryland, Georgia, Nevada, Texas, Wisconsin, and now South Dakota can all lay claim to one Big Red player.
 
THE NEW NEWFOUNDLANDER
Freshman forward Amy Curlew is the first player to come to Ithaca by way of Newfoundland and Labrador. Curlew's arrival leaves just Prince Edward Island as the only Canadian province without a player listed on a Big Red roster. Of the three Canadian territories, Yukon and Nunavut haven't been represented, but Allison Simpson '04 hailed from the Northwest Territories capital of Yellowknife.
 
SISTER, SISTER
When the Big Red squared off against Carleton Ravens in the only exhibition game of the season, listed on the visitors roster was Rachel Knee, the younger sister of Big Red junior Sarah Knee. The sisters share both a position – defense – and their 6'1" frames make them the tallest member of their respective teams.
 
FIVE CORNELLIANS HEADED TO FOUR NATIONS
Five former Big Red standouts were named to Canada's roster for the upcoming Four Nations Cup. Defensemen Lauriane Rougeau '13 and Laura Fortino '13 will be joined by forwards Jessica Campbell '14, Rebecca Johnston '12, and Brianne Jenner '15 on a 21-player squad that kicks off the tournament in Vierumaki, Finland on Nov. 1 against Finland. Canada will also play Sweden on Nov. 2 and then wrap up the preliminary round against the United States on Nov. 4. Fortino, Jenner, Johnston, and Rougeau were members of the silver medal-winning squad at the 2016 IIHF Women's World Championship. Fortino, Jenner, Johnston and Rougeau were members of the gold medal-winning squad at the 2014 Winter Olympics, while Campbell, Fortino, and Rougeau, won silver medals at the 2015 Four Nations Cup in Switzerland.
 
PRO PIPELINE
Between both the Canadian Women's Hockey League and the National Women's Hockey League, 10 Cornellians appeared on a professional opening night roster. In the CWHL, the 2016 Clarkson Cup-winning Calgary Inferno boasts five former Big Red skaters in Brianne Jenner, Hayleigh Cudmore, Jessica Campbell, Jill Saulnier, and Rebecca Johnston, with Jenner serving as the captain. Emily Fulton is the lone Cornell graduate skating for the Toronto Furies. Cassandra Poudrier joins Lauriane Rougeau on the Montreal Les Canadiennes roster and Taylor Woods has reunited with former teammate Laura Fortino on the Brampton Thunder. In the NWHL, both Alyssa Gagliardi and Lauren Slebodnick are attempting to win their second-straight Isobel Cup with the Boston Pride.
 
45TH SEASON
With the start of the 2016-17 season, the women's hockey program is embarking on its 45th season of intercollegiate play and currently holds an all-time record of 537-489-62. Cornell, which began play with the 1972-73 season, is the second-oldest Division I women's program in the country still in existence. Brown began play in 1967-68.
 
UP NEXT
The Big Red will head to the Capitol region next weekend for its first ECAC Hockey action of the season. Cornell will take on Rensselaer on Friday afternoon in Troy and then head to Schenectady for a Saturday afternoon matchup with the Dutchwomen of Union College.