ITHACA, N.Y. — The men's soccer team will look to get back into the Ivy league picture this weekend when it heads to Harvard on Saturday for a 4 p.m. matchup at Jordan Field. Both teams will be looking for their first conference win in hopes of picking up some ground in the wide open race for the Ancient Eight title.

GAME INFORMATION
GAME #11: Cornell Big Red at Harvard Crimson
WHEN: 4 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016
WHERE: Jordan Field – Cambridge, Mass. (FieldTurf surface)
2016 RECORDS: Cornell 0-8-2 (0-1-0), Harvard 4-3-2 (0-0-1)
VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: GoCrimson.com
LIVE UPDATES: @CUBigRedGameday
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell opened up Ivy League play on Sunday with a hard-fought overtime loss at home against Penn. Senior Jack Ferguson tied the game in the 87th minute to force extra time, but the Quakers found the net first in overtime to steal the game, 2-1. The Big Red took a season-high 20 shots, including seven from freshman George Pedlow. … Cornell has played a challenging non-conference schedule in 2016 – one that included several ranked opponents and four games in six days. Cornell opened up the season at home against Central Connecticut State and tied, 2-2, in overtime then hit the road for four games. After playing then-ranked No. 14 Connecticut to a tough, 2-0, loss, the Big Red then headed to the Capitol Cup where it lost to George Mason, 1-0, in overtime, and dropped a game, 5-2, to American, a team that was ranked No. 20 at the time. 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. After a week of rest, the team headed to Charlottesville on Sept. 27 to take on then-ranked No. 16 Virginia, dropping the game 4-0. … Cornell has received goals from six different players. Brady Dickens and George Pedlow have two goals each, while Madison Heck, Jonathan Cullom, Jack Ferguson and Ryan Watters have one each. Tommy Griffin has two assists. … Ryan Shellow has played the last seven games in goal for Cornell, making 42 saves, including a program record 13 against Syracuse.
 
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.
 
IRONMEN
Junior captain Eric Nuss and classmate Spencer Kopko are the only two Big Red players to have played every single minute this season. The defenders have logged 964 minutes each – including two, 110 minute efforts in double-overtime games against Central Connecticut and Binghamton – through the first 10 games.
 
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.
 
SAVES BY SHELLOW
Goalkeeper Ryan Shellow set a program record when he made 13 saves in the game against Syracuse, the second-most saves made in a single game this year in the NCAA. The freshman has made 42 saves in 2016 and his average of 6.00 saves per game is tied for fourth in the country.
 
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 41 games he's played over the last two seasons and logged a team-leading 1,450 minutes last season
 
BIG RED REWIND
Cornell ended the 2015 season with a 4-12-1 record but finished strong, going 3-3 over the last six games. …The team returns every single player that registered a point last year, including senior midfielder Madison Heck, who led the team with five points …This year, Cornell has a senior-heavy roster that brings a wealth of experience to the pitch. Eleven players are entering their final seasons in a Big Red uniform and the newcomers to the team – nine freshmen and a transfer from Syracuse – have added depth at every position.
 
THE SERIES WITH HARVARD
Cornell suffered a 2-0 loss in last year's match against Harvard on Berman Field. The overall series stands at 22-41-15, with the Big Red's last win over the Crimson came on Oct. 6, 2012. That 3-1 win gave Cornell its 10th win in as many games.
 
ABOUT HARVARD
Harvard comes into the game against Cornell with a three game unbeaten streak. The Crimson opened up Ivy League play last week with a 3-3 tie against Yale. Three different players scored for the Crimson against the Bulldogs … Jake Freeman leads the team with 11 points on four goals and three assists while freshman Matthew Glass leads all Ivy League rookies with four goals and two assists for 10 points. Freeman and Glass sit second and third, respectively, in Ivy League scoring. Kyle Parks has played every minute in goal for Harvard, making 41 saves and putting up a 1.69 goals against average. Ten different players have tallied a point for the Crimson this season and seven different players have scored a goal … Harvard, who played current No. 16 Washington in Cambridge back in September and won, 1-0, went 5-2 in Ancient Eight play last season and finished second in the final standings.  
 
UP NEXT
The Big Red will head to Colgate on Tuesday to take on the Raiders in the last non-conference game of the season. The team then returns home on Sunday, Oct. 16 to resume Ivy League play against Yale.