ITHACA, N.Y. — The men's soccer team will take on the No. 5 Syracuse Orange on Tuesday night at Berman Field. The last time that  the Big Red played an opponent ranked this highly was in 2004 when it played No. 2 Louisville in the 2014 season opener.

GAME INFORMATION
GAME #8: Cornell Big Red vs. Syracuse Orange
WHEN: 7 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016
WHERE: Berman Field – Ithaca, N.Y. (natural surface)
2016 RECORDS: Cornell 0-5-2, Syracuse 7-0-0
VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
LIVE UPDATES: @CUBigRedGameday
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell's game against Syracuse will be its fourth game in seven days. The team tied Binghamton, 1-1, in extra time on Wednesday night then returned home to play Saint Francis on Friday, again going to a second overtime period before ultimately falling, 2-1. On Sunday, the team took on a talented New Hampshire squad and fell, 2-0. … Cornell opened up the season at home against Central Connecticut State and tied, 2-2, in overtime. The team 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. The team's two goals against Eagles made them just one of two teams this year that have scored more than one goal against American. … Freshman Brady Dickens leads the team in scoring with two goals and one assist for five points, while senior Madison Heck is second on the squad with one goal and one assist for three points. … Junior Mitchell Meyer and freshman Ryan Shellow have each played in four games in goal for the Big Red. Meyer has faced 45 shots and made 11 saves while Shellow has faced 42 shots and made 19 saves.
 
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 13^thoverall 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.
 
AN ABUNDANCE OF OVERTIMES
Of the seven games Cornell has played so far this season, four of them have gone to extra time. The last – and only other time – that the Big Red played in four overtime games through the first seven games played in a season was 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.
 
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 681 minutes each, including two, 110 minute efforts in double-overtime games against Central Connecticut and Binghamton.
 
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 39 games over the last two seasons and logged a team-leading 1,450 minutes last season.
 
SENIOR AND FRESHMAN PRESENCE
The 11 members of the Class of 2017 make up a third of this year's 31-player roster and seven of those players have registered at least one career point. There are also nine members of the Class of 2020 on the team this year, making it a top- and bottom-heavy roster. Six juniors and five sophomores round out the squad.
 
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 – including Spencer Kopko from Ithaca – while California, Colorado and New Jersey have three representatives each.
 
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 SYRACUSE
These two teams last played in 2014, with Syracuse winning, 3-0, but Cornell holds the overall series lead, going 39-24-7 against the Orange since their first meeting in 1921. The Big Red's last win against Syracuse came on Nov. 11, 2001, when it beat the Orange, 2-1, in Syracuse.
 
ABOUT SYRACUSE
Syracuse, currently ranked fifth overall in the NSCAA Coaches' poll, is coming off of a 2-0 win over No. 15 Boston College on Friday, and the team's 7-0-0 start is tied for the best start in school history. … Syracuse has 10 players with at least one point. Chris Nanco and Johannes Pieles lead the Orange with nine points each. Nanco, a senior, has four goals and one assist, while the freshman Pieles has three goals and three assists. … Sophomore Hendrik Hilpert has played every minute in goal for the Orange in 2016, posting a 0.41 goals against average, five shutouts, and 15 saves. … Last year, the Orange won the ACC Tournament and advanced to the College Cup for the first time in school history.
 
UP NEXT
The Big Red will have a week off before heading down to Virginia to take on the No. 17 Cavaliers in the penultimate non-conference game of the season. Cornell will then return to Berman Field on Oct. 2 to begin Ivy League play against Penn.