ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's soccer team will challenge an Ivy League frontrunner on Saturday when it travels to Harvard, then the Big Red wraps up the non-league portion of its schedule on Monday night with a visit to neighboring Colgate.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Cornell at Harvard
DATE: Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016
TIME: 1 p.m.
SITE: Jordan Field – Cambridge, Mass. (artifical surface)
RECORDS: Cornell 3-6-1, 0-2 Ivy League; Harvard 7-3, 2-0 Ivy League
VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: GoCrimson.com
 
Cornell at Colgate
DATE: Monday, Oct. 10, 2016
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Beyer-Small '76 Field – Hamilton, N.Y. (artificial surface)
RECORDS*: Cornell 3-6-1, 0-2 Ivy League; Colgate 4-5-3, 2-2 Patriot League
VIDEO: Patriot League Network
LIVE STATS: GoColgateRaiders.com
* — does not include Saturday's results
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is 3-6-1 after a 5-0 loss to Penn last Friday night at Berman Field, which also dropped the Big Red to 0-2 in Ivy League play. The Quakers scored three times in the opening 23 minutes, then tacked on a fourth goal 17.3 seconds before halftime. … A dearth of offense has plagued the Big Red through the season's first six weeks, with the team scoring just four goals to date. Freshman Kennedy Yearby's strike in the team's 1-0 victory over Binghamton on Sept. 18 is the team's lone goal over its last seven games. … Earlier this month, Cornell endured the most challenging stretch of non-league games in five years under head coach Patrick Farmer. The Big Red forced overtime against ACC foe Syracuse on Sept. 4 on a goal from junior forward Tess Pullano, but the Orange scored a golden goal in overtime to end the Big Red's 13-game unbeaten streak in non-league games. Cornell then lost to nationally-ranked Rutgers, 2-0, before suffering a pair of 1-0 losses to Seton Hall and San Diego St. … The Big Red started the year with 1-0 victories on the road against Siena (Aug. 28) and Loyola (Sept. 2). Both games featured goals in the fifth minute from junior forward Paige DeLoach. … DeLoach leads the team in scoring with four points on her two goals, then Pullano has three points on her goal against Syracuse and an assist on DeLoach's goal at Loyola.
 
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.
 
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 has 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. That clean sheet brought Tierney's career total of shutouts to 20, which is tied for second in program history with Sue DeLong (20) and trails only Melissa Gambrell (22). Tierney also ranks tied for fourth in career victories (21) and sixth in career goals against average (1.16). 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 HARVARD
The Crimson won its fifth straight game last Saturday, rallying with a pair of second-half goals for a 2-1 victory against visiting Yale at rainy Jordan Field. Harvard played from behind for more than 65 minutes before three-time All-Ivy League first team selection Margaret Purce scored on a header in the 74th minute. Junior midfielder Caroline Chagares then netted the winner on a header off a corner kick in the 81st minute. … The victory pushed Harvard to 2-0 in the Ivy League, which is good for a first-place tie with Columbia entering this weekend. The Crimson opened Ancient Eight play Sept. 24 at Penn, where it was the beneficiary of a penalty kick that Purce finished in the 29th minute for a 1-0 win over the Quakers. … Purce, a senior forward on the Preseason MAC-Hermann Award Watch List for a third straight year, leads the team in scoring with 20 points. Her nine goals are tied for the Ivy League lead. Senior forwards Rachel Garcia and Karly Zlatic, and sophomore defender Leah Mohammadi have two goals apiece, and Mohammdi leads the team with three assists. … Senior Lizzie Durack is the Crimson's primary goalkeeper. She has a 5-2 record, 1.20 goals against average, .731 save percentage and two shutouts through eight games.
 
THE SERIES WITH HARVARD
Harvard holds a commanding 23-3-8 lead in the all-time series with Cornell, including a 2-0 victory on Oct. 10, 2015 at Berman Field that halted the Big Red's 11-game unbeaten streak to start the year. In 2012, Patrick Farmer's first season as head coach, the Big Red earned a 1-1 draw at Harvard. Cornell's last victory against the Crimson came in 1993.
 
ABOUT COLGATE
The Raiders enter Saturday's game at Holy Cross with a 4-5-3 record overall following consecutive losses to Boston University and Bucknell. Keely Lockwood scored in the 21st minute to bring Colgate level with Bucknell in the Raiders' Homecoming Game last Saturday, but the Bison produced a golden goal with one second remaining in the first overtime session. … Colgate has played one other Ivy League program to date, earning a 1-1 tie with Yale on Sept. 9. … The Raiders' runs through Abby Sotomayor, who has seven of the team's 15 goals entering the weekend. Sarah Coy has two goals and her five points is tied for second on the team with Eliza Doll, who has one goals and a team-high three assists. … Kelly Chiavaro has started all 12 games in goal and sports a 4-5-3 record, 1.40 goals against average, .786 save percentage and one shutout.
 
THE SERIES WITH COLGATE
The Raiders are on a five-match unbeaten streak against the Big Red to take an 18-15-4 lead in the all-time series between the regional rivals. The teams played to a scoreless draw on Oct. 12, 2015 in their last meeting, with the Big Red back line so strong that Kelsey Tierney earned the shutout without needing to make a single save. Cornell's last victories came in 2010 and 2011, both by final scores of 2-0.
 
UP NEXT
The Big Red will play all four of its remaining regular-season games within the Ivy League, including three games at home. The home stretch starts at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15 with a visit from Yale, then Cornell plays its final road game at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22 at Brown.