VESTAL, N.Y. — The women's soccer team will play its final game before the start of Ivy League play at noon Sunday, when it makes the short trip southeast to take on regional rival Binghamton at Bearcats Sports Complex. It is the first of three consecutive contests for the Big Red on artificial surfaces.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Cornell at Binghamton
DATE: Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016
TIME: Noon
SITE: Bearcats Sports Complex – Vestal, N.Y. (artificial surface)
RECORDS: Cornell 2-4, Binghamton 4-3-2
VIDEO: America East TV
LIVE STATS: BUbearcats.com
LIVE UPDATES: @CUBigRedGameday

ABOUT THE BIG RED
In the midst of the program's most challenging stretch of non-league games in five years under head coach Patrick Farmer, Cornell has lost its last four games. An offensive drought has struck the team of late, with the Big Red last scoring a goal Sept. 4 against Syracuse. That goal, by junior Tess Pullano, forced overtime against the team's ACC opponent before the Orange score a golden goal in overtime to end the Big Red's 13-game unbeaten streak in non-league games. … In Cornell's next game on Sept. 9, the Big Red stood toe-to-toe for most of a game against nationally ranked Rutgers before the host Scarlet Knights won 2-0 on a pair of late goals. Cornell then couldn't rebound from a sluggish start in Sunday's game against San Diego State, with a 45th-minute goal on a penalty kick proving to be all that was needed for a 1-0 Aztecs victory. The Big Red fell victim to a similar storyline its last time out, when it had a territorial advantage but ended up losing 1-0 to Seton Hall on a goal off a corner kick midway through the first half. … 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. … Sophomore goalkeeper Meghan Kennedy has made 20 saves in her three starts this season. She has a 1-2 record with a 1.00 goals against average, .870 and one shutout.
 
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. The penultimate team to concede its first goal last season is the Big Red's opponent Friday — Rutgers. 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. Both the starting goalkeeper, senior Kelsey Tierney, and both primary central defenders, senior Kailey Joyce and sophomore Zoe McCormick, return to the Big Red this year. ... 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. Sophomore midfielder Jessica Ritchie had two goals and an assist for five points last year, while sophomore midfielder Carolyn Ruoff is the only returning player with two assists last year.
 
HEAD COACH PATRICK FARMER
Now in his 24th season as a head coach in the NCAA, Patrick Farmer is entering 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 will join the Big Red staff as an assistant coach, and Megan Giles is the new 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 19, which ranks third in program history behind Melissa Gambrell (22) and Sue DeLong (20). Tierney also ranks tied for fourth in career victories (20) and sixth in career goals against average (1.09). 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 BINGHAMTON
The Bearcats are 4-3-2 after a 1-0 loss to Bryant on Thursday night. The goal was scored in the 74th minute on a clear breakaway from 40 yards. Binghamton's last victory was Sept. 11 against Temple, when it scored twice in the second half to secure a 3-1 victory. … There is a three-way tie for the team lead in scoring, including senior forward Leighann Bennett from the town of Dryden just to the east of Cornell's campus. Bennett and sophomore forward Jocelyn Acor each have two goals and one assist for five points, while redshirt junior Michele Galvin also has five points on one goal and three assists. Sophomore forward Patty Loonie has two goals for four points. … Junior Katie Hatziyianis has been the team's exclusive goalkeeper to date, posting a 4-3-2 record with a 0.73 goals against average, .860 save percentage and three shutouts. … Neel Bhattacharjee is in his first season as the head coach at Binghamton.
 
THE SERIES WITH BINGHAMTON
The Big Red expanded its all-time series lead against Binghamton to 5-2-2 last season with a 1-0 victory at Berman Field. Senior midfielder Elizabeth Crowell scored the game's lone goal in the 62nd minute on a feed from senior defender Kailey Joyce in the aftermath of a corner kick. Cornell's last visit to Binghamton created the same score, with Shanay Fischer '16 converting a header on a cross from junior forward Tess Pullano in the final minute of the first overtime period. The Bearcats' last victory over Cornell was by a 2-1 margin on Sept. 12, 2012.
 
UP NEXT
The Big Red opens Ivy League play at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23 against Columbia in a game scheduled to be played at Fairleigh Dickinson's campus in Teaneck, N.J. Cornell then wraps up a stretch of three straight road games at 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 25 at Central Connecticut State before returning to Berman Field for a 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30 Ivy League game against Penn.