MATCH INFORMATION
MATCH #21: Cornell vs. Harvard
MATCH TIME: Friday, Nov. 4, 2016; 7:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Newman Arena (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 37-26
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 3-2; Oct. 15, 2016
2016 RECORDS: Cornell (10-10, 4-6 Ivy); Dartmouth (8-13, 1-9 Ivy)
LIVE STATS: http://www.sidearmstats.com/cornell/wvball/
LIVE VIDEO: http://www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com/cornell
 
MATCH #22: Cornell vs. Dartmouth
MATCH TIME: Saturday, Nov. 5, 2016; 5:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Newman Arena (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 40-17
LAST MEETING: Dartmouth won, 3-2; Oct. 14, 2016
* 2016 RECORDS: Cornell (10-10, 4-6 Ivy); Harvard (6-13, 4-6 Ivy)
LIVE STATS: http://www.sidearmstats.com/cornell/wvball/
LIVE VIDEO: http://www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com/cornell
 
THE MATCHUP: The Cornell volleyball team enters the weekend with an opportunity to amass its most Ivy League wins since the 2008 season, while honoring a pair of seniors – Alyssa Phelps and Macey Wilson – that have been instrumental in the programs upward swing. The weekend kicks off with the Big Red playing host to Harvard on Friday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m., before taking on Dartmouth on Saturday, Nov. 5 at 5 p.m. Cornell will hold its annual Senior Day celebration prior to the game with the Crimson. Live stats and video stream on the Ivy League Digital Network will be available for both contests.
 
THE SERIES VS. HARVARD: Cornell and Harvard first met in 1977, a 2-0 Big Red victory. Cornell went on to win the next 10 contests before the Crimson earned its first win in the series during the 1988 campaign. The Big Red had won nine straight meetings, dating back to Oct. 9, 2004, before Harvard earned a series sweep in both the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Cornell swept the Crimson in 2011, but Harvard went on to win eight consecutive outings prior to the Big Red's win earlier this season to improve to 37-26 in the all-time series.
 
LAST TIME VS. THE CRIMSON: The Big Red trailed Harvard 10-2 in fifth set, but staged an epic comeback, using a 13-2 run to steal the five set victory (28-25, 21-25, 25-21, 18-25, 15-12) from the Crimson at the Malkin Center in Cambridge, Mass. For the match, Kit McCarty led Cornell with 16 kills and a .448 hitting percentage (16-3-29), while Carla Sganderlla finished with a 13-kill, 18-dig double-double. The Big Red middle blocker duo of Macey Wilson (9-3-25) and Jenna Phelps (9-2-24) hit a combined .265 with 18 kills. Wilson also finished with seven block assists, while McCarty chipped in six. Senior setter Alyssa Phelps registered 49 assists and 11 digs, while sophomore defensive specialist Shae Bauchens and junior libero Kiley McPeek finished with 16 and 15 digs, respectively. Harvard was lead with Grace Roberts Burbank's 17 kills and .375 hitting percentage, while Corinne Bain had a triple-double with 15 kills, 20 assists, and 12 block assists. Christina Cornelius also chipped in 11 block assists as the Crimson registered an impressive 19 team blocks. 
 
SCOUTING HARVARD: The Crimson enters the weekend with a record of 6-13 overall and 4-6 in Ivy League play after losing a pair of games last weekend to Penn and Princeton. The team is led by Grace Roberts Burkank's 2.83 kills per set, while Maclaine Fields has a team-best .339 hitting percentage. Setter Connie Bain ranks sixth in the Ivy League with 6.71 assists per set and is sixth overall with 0.32 service aces per set. Freshman libero Isabelle Tashima ranks sixth in the conference with 3.53 digs per set.
 
THE SERIES VS. DARTMOUTH: Cornell's series with Dartmouth began in 1981 and the Big Red has dominated from the beginning, winning the first 13 meetings before falling to the Big Green for the first time on Oct. 12, 1996. Cornell owns a 40-17 record in the all-time series, winning 21 of the last 32 outings.
 
LAST TIME VS. THE BIG GREEN: The Big Red was edged by Dartmouth, 3-2, at Leede Arena in Hanover, N.H. After each team earned a convincing victory in splitting the first two sets (20-25, 25-15), the final three sets were decided by a total of seven points (24-26, 25-22, 13-15). Cornell was led by Carla Sganderlla's 17-kill, 15-dig double-double, while Macey Wilson connected on .278 percent of her attempts (8-3-18). Freshman middle Jenna Phelps was a force at the net, registering a career-high seven block assists to help Cornell to 10 total team blocks. She also added seven kills (7-4-25) and two service aces. Behind Phelps, junior libero Kiley McPeek tallied a career-high 27 digs. Senior setter Alyssa Phelps tallied 32 assists, while sophomore setter Gabby Goodall saw action in three sets and finished with 13 helpers. Dartmouth had three players finish with double-digit kills, led by Kaira Lujan with 14 and a team high .400 hitting percentage (14-2-30). The Big Greens' setters Zoe Leonard and Corinne Cox finished with 31 and 21 assists, respectively, while Danielle Glinka, one of five Dartmouth players to post double-digit digs, finished with a team-high 19.
 
SCOUTING DARTMOUTH: The Big Green has lost three consecutive outings prior to its game at Columbia on Friday night to slip to 8-13 overall and 1-9 in the Ivy League. As a team, Dartmouth has struggled offensively, ranking seventh in the Ivy League in kills (11.45) and eighth in hitting percentage (.154). The defense has kept the team in most games, limiting opponents to just .171 hitting percentage, good for second in the Ancient Eight, while ranking fourth overall in team blocks (2.05 per set). The Big Green is led by Emily Astarita's 2.90 kills per set, while Kaira Lujan is hitting a team-best .223, and leading the squad and ranking fourth in the Ivy League with 1.04 blocks per set. Defensively, Danielle Glinka and Julia Lau lead Dartmouth with 3.26 and 2.51 digs per set, respectively.
 
THE HEAD COACH: Trudy Vande Berg is in her second season as The Wendy Schaenen '79 Head Coach Of Volleyball at Cornell (16-28, .364) ... Vande Berg became the 11th head coach in Cornell volleyball history in March 2015 after spending three seasons as the Big Red's top assistant coach ... Prior to her time at Cornell, Vande Berg spent time as an assistant coach at North Florida, Duke, and Iowa State and as a volunteer assistant at Wisconsin. She also served as head coach of the Team Iowa Ice professional club in the Premier Volleyball League, where she guided the team to the championship in her second year at the helm.
 
SENIOR DAY SALUTE: Saturday's game vs. Dartmouth will be the final home contest for Big Red seniors Alyssa Phelps and Macey Wilson. A pair of four-year starters, the duo has been instrumental in leading the team to one of its most successful seasons in eight years. A setter from Bucyrus, Kans., Phelps is just the second player in the history of Cornell volleyball, and 20th in the history of the Ivy League, to amass 3,000 assists. A middle blocker from Round Rock, Texas, Wilson enters the weekend ranked third in Cornell history in career block assists (298), fifth in total career blocks (344), and 15th in career solo blocks (46).
 

 
PLAYER OF THE WEEK NOTES:
* After her 41-assist performance in a 3-1 victory over Columbia, Alyssa Phelps earned her first Ivy League honor, being named Player of the Week. She was the Big Red's first Ivy League Player of the Week award winner since Breanna Wong on Sept. 17, 2013.
* Sophomore Carla Sganderlla was named the Ivy League Player of the Week for the first time of her career on Oct. 31 after helping the Big Red split a pair of games at Yale and Brown. She posted back-to-back 20-kill performances on the weekend, averaging an incredible 5.0 kills per set, and hitting better than .300 in both matches. Sganderlla also finished with a pair of double-doubles, with 10 digs apiece vs. the Bulldogs and Bears.
* Sganderlla and Phelps are the first pair of Cornell volleyball teammates to take home the honor in the same season since Emily Borman '09 and Megan Mushovic '10 did so in 2007.  
 
RISING IVY: Cornell needs just one win in its final four Ivy League games to post its most conference wins since 2012 (5). A pair of wins will be the most for the program since the 2008 squad went 9-5 and finished third in the Ivy League.   

DOUBLE-DIGIT WINS: With its win over Brown, Cornell posted double-digit victories for the first time since the 2008 campaign. The Big Red needs just one more win in its final four games to post the most wins in a season since the 2006 Ivy League championship squad won 18 games.  
 
NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS: With its 3-2 win over Binghamton, Cornell wrapped up its non-conference schedule with a 6-4 record, amassing the most non-conference wins in a season since 2006 (7) ... It also gave the Big Red its first winning record out of conference since the 2005 squad went 7-4 in non-league play.
 
FINISHING STRONG: Under second-year head coach Trudy Vande Berg, Cornell is 7-5 in matches that go five sets.
 
HEAVY HITTERS: The Big Red enters the week with a .223 hitting percentage, a mark that would be the fifth best in school history if the season ended today.
 
CLOSE LOSSES: Cornell has lost 24 sets in Ivy League play, more than a third of which (nine) have been by two points.
 
NCAA RANKINGS: Entering the week, Carla Sganderlla's .42 service aces per set ranks 30th in the nation, while Macey Wilson ranks 116th in blocks per set (1.10).
 
IN THE IVY RANKINGS: Several Cornell players are raked in the top 10 of various Ivy League statistical categories, including:
* Macey Wilson – sixth in hitting percentage (.306)
* Kit McCarty – seventh in hitting percentage (.289)
* Jenna Phelps – eighth in hitting percentage (.279)
* Carla Sganderlla – third in kills per set (3.08)
* Kit McCarty – 10th in kills per set (2.74)
* Alyssa Phelps – third in assists per set (8.43)
* Carla Sganderlla – second in service aces per set (0.42)
* Macey Wilson – second in blocks (1.10)
* Lily Barber – 10th in digs per set (3.17)
 
TEAM IVY RANKINGS: As a team, Cornell ranks in the top half of the Ivy League rankings in:
* Assists (second – 12.30)
* Kills (second – 12.96)
* Hitting percentage (second – .223)
* Blocks (third – 2.06) 
 
SETTING UP: With her 50 assists vs. Brown on Oct. 29, senior setter Alyssa Phelps became just the second player in Cornell volleyball history, and 20th in the history of the Ivy League, to surpass 3,000 career assists.
 
BIG BLOCKER: Senior Macey Wilson ranks 15th in Cornell history for career solo blocks (46), needing just one more to move past Traci Mizoguchi '96 in 14th place. She is also third in block assists (298) and fifth in total blocks (344), needing 25 and 22, respectively, to move up a notch.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM:  Juniors Kit McCarty and Emily Wemnoff were named to the Cornell Invitational All-Tournament … Junior Maddy Sroufe was named to the UMKC Kangaroo Klassic All-Tournament Team … McCarty and sophomore Carla Sganderlla were name to the Bucknell Invitational All-Tournament Team. 
 
DID YOU KNOW:
* Alyssa Phelps is a research assistant in the Ophir Integrative Neuroethology Lab at Cornell … Alyssa and Jenna Phelps are sisters.
* Kiley McPeek has 10 relatives that are Cornell alumni. Her father, Jeff '82, played sprint football for the Big Red, while her great uncle Richard Boerner was a member of the Cornell heavyweight varsity eight that won the IRA national championship in 1958 … This past summer, she did an internship in Istanbul, Turkey and was in the country during the attempted coup d'état.
* Kit McCarty is one of eight children – she has four brothers and three sisters.
* Zoe Lequeux is a French citizen.
* Carla Sganderlla can speak Portuguese ... Her brother attends Cornell.
* Kara Rogers lived in Germany for a year … Her sister is a member of the Yale swimming team.
* Maddy Sroufe's younger sister plays volleyball at VCU.
* This past summer, Chelsea Sincox worked for Congressman Pete Olson … Last summer she interned at NASA.
* Jada Stackhouse is a distant cousin of 18-year NBA veteran Jerry Stackhouse.
 
SEASON OPENERS: With its win over Colgate on Sept. 3, Cornell improved to 29-14-1 all-time in season openers. Since 1995, the Big Red is an impressive 16-5 in the first match of the season ... Coach Vande Berg is a perfect 2-0 in season openers.
 
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: The Big Red added six freshmen – as Samanta Arenas, Lily Barber, Sophia Beaudoin, Jenna Phelps, Katie Randolph and Jada Stackhouse – to the roster for the 2016 season. The six student-athletes hail from six different states and the group consists of two middle blockers, two outside hitters, one setter, and one defensive specialist.
 
UP NEXT: The Big Red will play its final games of the season when it travels to Princeton and Penn on Friday, Nov. 11 and Saturday, Nov. 12, respectively.