GAME INFORMATION
GAME #16: Cornell vs. No. 13 Princeton
GAME TIME: Saturday, Oct. 29 at Noon
GAME SITE: Marsha Dodson Field (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Princeton leads, 30-5-3
LAST MEETING: Princeton won, 4-0, Oct. 31, 2015 (Princeton, N.J.)
2016 RECORDS: Cornell (8-7, 2-3 Ivy); Princeton (9-6, 4-1 Ivy)
LIVE STATS
LIVE VIDEO
 
THE MATCHUP: The Big Red field hockey heads into the home stretch of the season as it welcomes No. 13 Princeton to Marsha Dodson Field on Saturday, Oct. 29 at noon. The Big Red has won two consecutive games, downing Brown and Rider last weekend to improve to 8-7 overall (2-3 Ivy), while the Tigers were upset by No. 20 Harvard a week ago, as the Crimson snapped Princeton's 15-game Ivy League winning streak. Live stats will be available at www.CornellBigRed.com and can viewed live on the Ivy League Digital Network.
 
THE SERIES WITH PRINCETON: The Tigers have dominated the series with Cornell from the get-go, winning the first five meetings, beginning with a 4-0 victory in 1978. The Big Red's best stretch in the series came from 1983-1990, as Cornell posted a 4-2-2 record, but a 2-1 overtime win by Princeton in 1991 began a 14-game unbeaten streak for the Tigers. The streak was snapped with a 4-3 Big Red victory at Princeton in 2007, but the Tigers have won the last eight outings, including last year's 4-0 decision, to improve to 30-5-3 all-time in the series.
 
SCOUTING THE TIGERS: No. 13 Princeton had its 15-game Ivy League winning streak snapped last weekend when it fell to No. 20 Harvard in overtime. The Tigers, sitting at 9-6 overall and 4-1 in the Ivy League have the 12th-best RPI in the nation, as all six of the squad's losses have come to nationally ranked opponents. The offense is led by Cat Caro, who ranks ninth in the country with 1.00 goals per game (14) and 16th overall with 2.21 points per contest (26). Ryan McCarthy is the team's other big offensive threat with 11 goals and 26 points, while Carlotta von Gierke has a team-best seven assists. In goal, Grace Baylis has played every minute of the season and has posted a 1.52 goals-against average, good for 14th in the country, and has a .657 save percentage.
 
LAST TIME VS. PRINCETON:  For the first time since the opening weekend of the 2015 field hockey season, the Big Red was held scoreless, as it fell to No. 20 Princeton at Bedford Field on the Tigers' campus on Oct. 31, 2015. In a game that was much closer than the final score indicated, the Tigers held the 14-8 advantage in shots, including a slim edge of 8-5 for shots on goals. The Big Red held the 7-4 edge in penalty corners. Between the pipes, Princeton's Anya Gersoff made five saves to earn the win, while Cornell's Kelly Johnson stopped four in the loss. Jane Donio-Enscoe scored in the 16th minute and Ryan McCarthy tacked on a goal late in the first half to send the teams into the break with Princeton leading, 2-0. The Tigers held off several good Cornell chances early in the second and Maddie Copeland scored a pair of late goals to account for the 4-0 final.
 
THE HEAD COACH: Cornell head coach Donna Hornibrook is in her 13th season at Cornell (117-95, .552) ... She is the winningest coach in Big Red field hockey history, having pased Shelby (Pontz) Bowman, who registered 115 wins over 19 years … Hornibrook became the sixth coach in Cornell field hockey history in January 2004 ... She has a 281-137-10 (.668) record as a head coach, including a 111-39-4 mark at Houghton and a 60-8-6 record at New Brunswick.
 
CAREER RECORD WATCH:
Kelly Johnson
* Has set the Cornell record for wins (22), surpassing Alex Botte '12, Kaitlin Tierney '04 and Yanaka Bernal '91, who all previously held the record with 19 career wins.
* Ranks fourth in shutouts (7) … Needs one more to move into a second place tie with Carolyn Horner '14 and Karen Kuhm '78.
Luisa Schulte-Bockum
*Ranks second in defensive saves (10) … Needs just two more to break the school record, held by Amy Galebach (1997-2000).
Krysten Mayers
* Ranks fifth in goals (31) … Needs four more to move into a tie with Hannah Balleza (2010-13) in fourth place.
* Ranks seventh in points (73) … Needs 11 more to move into a tie with Emily Robb (1995-98) in sixth place.
* Ranks eighth in game-winning goals (7) … Needs one more to move into a four-way tie for fifth place. 
Katy Weeks
* Ranks 11th in goals (20) … Needs six more to break into the top 10.
* Ranks eighth in assists (15) … Needs one more to move into seventh place.
* Ranks 11th in points (55) … Needs three more to move into 10th place.
 
ROOKIE OF THE WEEK: Freshman Kirsten Pienaar was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week on Oct. 10. It was the first weekly honor of the season for Cornell and the first Rookie of the Week award won by a Big Red player since Isabel Siergiej on Oct. 27, 2015. Pienaar won the honor after registering her first collegiate goal vs. Yale, scoring the game-winner on a penalty stroke.
 
RANKED OPPONENTS: The Big Red's schedule features four teams that are ranked in the latest NFHCA Division I Poll – No. 2 Syracuse, No. 13 Princeton, No. 16 Harvard, and No. 17 Stanford … Cornell's last victory over a ranked opponent came when it defeated No. 20 Maine on Oct. 26, 2014, giving the Big Red its first win over a ranked opponent since defeating No. 19 Syracuse, 3-2, on Oct. 25, 2007.
 
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE (A NEW) HOME: The Big Red is 45-25 all-time on Marsha Dodson Field. Collectively, the team has outscored its opponents by a margin of 158-109 and has taken significantly more shots (1,205-728) than its opponents. The defense has been equally solid in the circle, allowing just 372 penalty corners (5.3 per game).
 
TEAM NCAA RANKINGS: The Big Red entered the week ranked in the nation's top 30 in …
* Goals against average – 28th (1.87)
* Shutouts per game – 23rd (0.20)
 
INDIVIDUAL NCAA RANKINGS:
* Kelly Johnson ranks 30th in goals-against average (1.99).
* Krysten Mayers ranks 59th in assists per game (0.47).
* Katie Carlson ranks 74th in goals per game (0.74).
* Katie Carlson and Krysten Mayers rank 69th in points per game (1.40)

ONE OF THE BEST: Head coach Donna Hornibrook ranks among the best when it comes to winning. Among active Division I head coaches, she ranks 17th overall for winning percentage (.628) and 19th for career wins (228), rankings that would be higher if the NCAA counted her 60-8-6 record at Canada's New Brunswick.
 
BALANCED ATTACK: Of the 15 field players on the roster that have seen action this season, 13 have registered at least one point.
 
KNOCK THREE TIMES: When the Big Red fell to Penn, 4-3, on Sept. 21, 2013 it marked only the fourth time in Coach Hornibrook's career with Cornell that the team scored three goals and lost the contest. Under Coach Hornibrook, the Big Red is 76-4 in games in which it scores at least three goals, a mark that was raised when it defeated Rider (3-1) on Oct. 23.
 
EARLY LEADS: Scoring first has been a big part of the Big Red's success in recent years. Since Coach Hornibrook has taken over the program, Cornell has posted an impressive 100-14 record in games in which they have scored first. Conversely, the team has won only 17 games in which they have had to come back from an early deficit to win. The first was Coach Hornibrook's very first victory with the team, a 6-3 win over Lehigh in 2004, with the latest coming on Oct. 23, 2016 as Cornell overcame an early 1-0 deficit to defeat Rider, 3-1.
 
CLOSE CALLS: Cornell's 1-0 win over Yale on Oct. 8 continued the Big Red's trend of playing in one-goal games. Since the start of the 2006 season, the Big Red has lost 72 games, with 43 of those coming by a single goal (.606), including 18 in overtime. During that same span, Cornell has won 96 games, with 45 coming in one-goal games (.468), including 12 in overtime.
 
OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN: Senior Katy Weeks and junior Sam McILwrick have been selected as team captains for the 2016 season.
 
RETURNING REGIONAL ALL-AMERICANS: Cornell returns a pair of Mideast Region All-American second-team selections to the roster in senior Katy Weeks and junior Krysten Mayers.
 
BIG RED INTERNATIONAL: Juniors Sam McILwrick and Krysten Mayers were selected to represent Canada and Barbados, respectively, as members of those nation's Under-21 teams that participated at the 2016 Pan American Junior Championship.
 
10 WINS: Cornell has won at least 10 games in eight of Coach Hornibrooks' 12 seasons. She is the only field hockey coach in Big Red history to lead the team to a single 10-win season.
 
RECAPPING 2015: For the first time in program history, the Big Red closed a campaign with a top 20 RPI and a top 20 strength of schedule (SOS), finishing at 19th overall in both categories. Cornell finished the 2015 season with a record of 11-6 overall and a mark of 5-2 in the Ivy League, good for second place in the conference standings. Of its six losses, four came to nationally ranked teams that made the NCAA tournament field, including three that finished in the top 10 of the RPI. Additionally, the Big Red's 11 wins tied the school record for victories in a season, previously set three times (2008, 2010, 2014), and the team set new school standards for points (147), goals (50) and assists (57).
 
UP NEXT: Cornell plays its final game of the season and honors the team's seniors – Elizabeth Horak, Luisa Schulte-Bockum, and Katy Weeks – when it welcomes Dartmouth to Marsha Dodson Field on Saturday, Nov. 5 at noon.