ITHACA, N.Y. — The men's soccer team will welcome Princeton to Berman Field on Saturday evening for an Ancient Eight matchup. Both squads are still looking for the first Ivy League win of the season.
 
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #15: Cornell Big Red vs. Princeton Tigers
WHEN: 5 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016
WHERE: Berman Field — Ithaca, N.Y. (natural surface)
2016 RECORDS: Cornell 1-11-2 (0-4-0 Ivy League), Princeton 6-7-1 (0-3-1 Ivy League)
VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
LIVE UPDATES: @CUBigRedGameday
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell heads into the game against Princeton coming off of a tough Ivy League loss to Brown on Sunday in Providence. Neither team could sustain much offensive flow, and the Bears scored the game's lone goal on a penalty kick early in the second half. … Cornell earned its first win of the season on Oct. 11 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. … The Big Red opened up Ancient Eight play on Oct. 2 with a tough 2-1 loss to Penn before dropping consecutive games to Harvard and Yale.
 
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.
 
IRONMAN
Junior defender Spencer Kopko is the only Big Red player to have played every single minute this season. The Ithaca native has logged 1,324 minutes – including two, 110 minute efforts in double-overtime battles against Central Connecticut State and Binghamton – through the first 14 games of the season.
 
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 10 games in goal for the Big Red and made 54 saves while Riley Adams and Christophe Gerlach have both logged over 645 minutes in the midfield and on the backline, respectively.

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 54 saves in 2016, which is second in the Ivy League.
 
WEEKLY HONORS
Freshman George Pedlow earned the Ivy League Men's Soccer Rookie of the Week award for the week of Sept. 20-26. Pedlow scored in the 32nd minute against No. 2 Syracuse, becoming the first player in 2016 to score first in a game against Syracuse.
 
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.
 
INTERNATIONAL APPEAL
Cornell men's soccer is a diverse group, with players hailing from 15 different states and England, as senior JJ Black and freshman George Pedlow both come to the Big Red from England. Six players come from New York while California, Colorado and New Jersey have three representatives each.
 
THE SERIES WITH PRINCETON
Princeton holds a 50-39-12 advantage in the all-time series between the Tigers and the Big Red. Cornell won last year's Oct. 31 meeting in Princeton 2-1. It was the first win against Princeton since a 1-0 victory in 2012.
 
ABOUT PRINCETON
The Tigers enter the game against Cornell with an overall record of 6-7-1 and an Ancient Eight record of 0-3-1. Princeton tied Dartmouth, 2-2, in its Ivy Opener before drooping one-goal games to Brown, Columbia, and Harvard. … The Ivy League leader in points, Greg Seifert, is the motor behind the Tiger offense with 21 points on nine goals and three assists. Seifert has also taken 45 shots, with 27 of them on target. Benjamin Martin is second on the team with three goals and two assists for eight points. In goal, Josh Haberman has played the majority of the minutes, posting a 1.55 goals against average, a .687 save percentage and one shutout.  
 
UP NEXT
Cornell will play its final home game of the season on Saturday, Nov. 5 when Dartmouth comes to East Hill. The game will be the Class of 2017's final game on Berman Field.