ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's soccer team will look to climb into the middle of the Ivy League pack at 1 p.m. Saturday when it hosts Yale at Berman Field.
GAME INFORMATION
Cornell at Brown
DATE: Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016
TIME: 2:30 p.m.
SITE: Stevenson-Pincince Field – Providence, R.I. (artificial surface)
RECORDS: Cornell 4-7-2, 1-2-1 Ivy League; Brown 7-2-4, 2-1-1 Ivy League
VIDEO:
Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS:
BrownBears.com
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is 4-7-2 after defeating Yale, 2-1, last Saturday for its first Ivy League victory of the season. Sophomore midfielder
Jessica Ritchie scored in the first half to give the Big Red the lead, converting a rebound on a save after a shot from senior midfielder
Elizabeth Crowell. The Bulldogs equalized on a penalty kick early in the second half, but freshman midfielder
Juliana Comer's first collegiate goal in the 77th minute proved to be the winner. Freshman forward
Kennedy Yearby and junior midfielder
Whitney Farber earned assists on the goal, which also propelled Comer to Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors. She is the first Big Red playing to win the award since 2013, when now-seniors Crowell and goalkeeper
Kelsey Tierney won it on consecutive weeks. … The victory keeps Cornell in the Ivy League race, though it would need to win all three of its remaining games and Columbia to lose all three of its remaining games to even have a chance. … The Big Red's first Ivy League point this season came on a scoreless draw with Harvard on Oct. 8. … A dearth of offense has plagued the Big Red for much of the season, with the team scoring just six goals to date. Junior forward
Paige DeLoach leads the team in scoring with four points on two goals, then junior forward
Tess Pullano, Comer and Yearby each have three points on one goals and one assist. … Both Tierney and sophomore
Meghan Kennedy have appeared in seven games in goal to date. Kennedy made 10 saves last Saturday against Yale and now sports a 2-2-2 record, 0.58 goals against average, .911 save percentage and three shutouts.
LAST TIME OUT
Highlights from Cornell's 2-1 win last Saturday vs. Yale ...
BIG RED REWIND
Cornell is coming off a memorable season in which it accomplished a host of heights the program has not recently seen. The Big Red was the last Division I women's team in the country to concede a goal in 2015, recording 10 consecutive shutouts and a program-record shutout streak of 1,059 minutes, 19 seconds dating back to November 2014. Cornell's undefeated mark through 11 games was also a first in program history, and the team's final record of 9-4-4 marked its best finish since 1995.. ... Senior midfielder
Elizabeth Crowell led the team in scoring for a second straight year with nine points. The All-Ivy League first team selection had four goals and one assist, with her goal total tying for the team lead with DeLoach. … Cornell went 2-4-1 in the Ivy League last year to earn seven points against Ancient Eight opponents for the first time since 1995. The Big Red can match that point total with a victory against Brown.
HEAD COACH PATRICK FARMER
Now in his 24th season as a head coach in the NCAA,
Patrick Farmer is in his fifth season as the Cornell women's soccer program's 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. Prior to his stint at Wisconsin, Farmer amassed a 261-97-40 record at 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.
Dwight Hornibrook is in his fifth season as an assistant coach after serving as the head coach of SUNY Cortland men's soccer for eight years, and the Big Red has added two new coaches for this year. Longtime Le Moyne head coach
Tracey Leipold has joined the Big Red staff as an assistant coach, and Megan Giles is the volunteer assistant coach after winning two All-Southland Conference honors during her four-year career at Oral Roberts.
TIERNEY'S TALE
Senior
Kelsey Tierney played every minute of the historic season in goal for the Big Red last year, helping the team tie a program single-season record with 12 shutouts and earning All-Ivy League first team honors. Tierney led the nation in goals against average for much of the season and finished the year ranked seventh (0.50), and she also ranked 13th in save percentage (.868). Her 12 shutouts ranked fourth in the nation, and she started this season on a similar note with a four-save blanking of Siena on Aug. 28. Tierney now has a career total of 20 shutouts, which is tied for second in program history with Sue DeLong and trails only Melissa Gambrell (22). Tierney also ranks tied for fourth in career victories (21) and sixth in career goals against average (1.17). Tierney and classmate
Elizabeth Crowell gave the Big Red its first All-Ivy first-teamers since 1995.
A CALL TO ARMBANDS
Seniors
Kelsey Tierney,
Kailey Joyce and
Elizabeth Crowell are serving as the Big Red's tri-captains this season. The group has three All-Ivy League selection between them, providing the Big Red with leadership that has logged significant minutes over their collegiate careers.
BALANCING ACT
For the first time in
Patrick Farmer's tenure as the head coach, the Big Red has a balanced roster in terms of age and production. Cornell is carrying a roster of 30 players, including seven seniors. There are also nine juniors, six sophomores and eight freshmen on the roster. Of Cornell's 108 points over the last two seasons, 63 were produced by players who are still on the team.
NATIONAL APPEAL
The Big Red has 12 different states and the District of Columbia represented on the team roster, with its home state of New York claiming nine players. Cornell has three players each that hail from California and Maryland, two each from the District of Columbia, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and one each from Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, Oregon and Texas. The nine players from New York marks the most on a Cornell roster since it had 15 Empire State natives on the 1997 squad.
ABOUT BROWN
The Bears are in third place in the Ivy League standings with a 7-2-4 overall record and 2-1-1 mark in Ivy play following last Saturday's 1-1 draw with Harvard. Junior forward Mikela Waldman scored in the first half and Brown held the lead for better than 60 minutes before Harvard pulled even with just 1:33 remaining in the second half on a goal set up by a free kick. The tie came on the heels of a 3-2 non-league win Oct. 11 at Holy Cross and a stunning 2-1 victory Oct. 8 at defending Ivy League champion Princeton. … Defense has been the name of the game for Brown, which played its entire eight-game September slate to scores of 0-0 or 1-0. After surrendering just one goal in its first nine games, the Bears have conceded five times in four games since the calendar flipped to October. … Senior midfielder Carly Gould leads the team in scoring with 10 points on three goals and four assists. Sophomore midfielder/forward Celia Story also has three goals with one assist for seven points. Junior defender Maclaine Lehan leads the team with three assists. … Sophomore Christine Etzel has started all 13 of Brown's games in goal so far, posting a 7-2-4 record, 0.37 goals against average, .928 save percentage and eight shutouts. She made a career-high 14 saves last Saturday against Harvard.
THE SERIES WITH BROWN
The Bears hold a 23-7-4 advantage in the all-time series, riding a seven-game unbeaten streak into this year's clash. Last year's game ended in heartache for the Big Red, with the visiting Bears storming back for a 3-2 overtime victory on Cornell's Senior Day at Berman Field. Cornell's last victory against Brown came on the road on Oct. 21, 2008, by a score of 2-0. The Big Red's first victory against Brown came in 1987, when it won a share of the Ivy League title.
UP NEXT
The Big Red will play its final road game of the regular season at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22 at Brown. Cornell then returns to Berman Field to close out the home portion of its schedule against defending Ivy League championship Princeton at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29 and Senior Day at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5 against Dartmouth.
