ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's soccer team starts Ivy League play at 7 p.m. Friday against Columbia before concluding a stretch of three straight road games with a 1 p.m. Sunday contest at Central Connecticut State.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Cornell at Columbia
DATE: Friday, Sept. 23, 2016
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: University Stadium – Teaneck, N.J. (artificial surface)
RECORDS: Cornell 3-4, Columbia 2-4-2
VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: GoColumbiaLions.com
LIVE UPDATES: @CUBigRedGameday
 
Cornell at Central Connecticut State
DATE: Sunday, Sept. 25, 2016
TIME: 1 p.m.
SITE: CCSU Soccer Field – New Britian, Conn. (artificial surface)
RECORDS: Cornell 2-4, Binghamton 4-3-2
VIDEO: NEC Front Row
LIVE STATS: CCSUBlueDevils.com
LIVE UPDATES: @CUBigRedGameday

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell snapped a four-game losing streak on Sunday with a 1-0 victory at Binghamton. Freshman forward Kennedy Yearby scored the game's lone goal in the 76th minute with a tap-in of a rebound on a header from junior defender Whitney Farber that hit the post. Senior defender Kailey Joyce started the play by serving a free kick near the left touch line from about 40 yards. ... The win snapped a goal-scoring drought of 377 minutes, 4 seconds as the Big Red endured the most challenging stretch of non-league games in five years under head coach Patrick Farmer. Cornell 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. … 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 conceded first-half goals en route to 1-0 losses against San Diego State and Seton Hall. … 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. 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 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 (1.07). Tierney and classmate Elizabeth Crowell gave the Big Red its first All-Ivy first-teamers since 1995.
 
GARDEN STATE REPRIEVE
Cornell thought it was going to play one game in New Jersey this season, which it did on Sept. 9 at nationally-ranked Rutgers. But with Columbia's soccer field having a season dome installed, Friday's game against the Big Red has been moved to Fairleigh Dickinson's home field in nearby Teaneck, N.J. It will be the first time Cornell has played at FDU's University Stadium.
 
TOUGH ON TURF
Berman Field, the home of the Big Red, has a refurbished natural surface this season — but Cornell is showing a knack for winning on synthetic turf this season. The Big Red is 2-0 in games on an artificial surface with 1-0 wins Sept. 2 at Loyola and last Sunday at Binghamton. Both of Cornell's games this weekend and all of its remaining road games are also on turf.
 
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 COLUMBIA
The Lions are coming off a 1-1 draw with Seton Hall, which is the only common opponent between Columbia and Cornell to date (the Big Red lost to the Pirates, 1-0, on Sept. 15). Junior defender/forward Natalie Neshat scored in the 53rd minute to pull Columbia even after a back-heeled pass from senior forward Madeline Linde. The Lions started last weekend with a third-minute goal from sophomore forward Emma Anderson against Saint Joseph's on Friday, but eventually suffered a 2-1 loss. … Anderson leads the team in scoring with six points on two goals and two assists. Linde has two goals and an assist for five points. … Sophomore Sophie Whitehouse is the team's primarily goalkeeper with a 2-4-1 record, 1.10 goals against average, .833 save percentage and three shutouts.
 
THE SERIES WITH COLUMBIA
The Big Red holds a 19-11 advantage in the all-time series between the Ivy League rivals, who have met in every season since the Lions added the sport in 1986. Cornell won last year's meeting at Berman Field, 1-0, when Brenna Mockler '16 calmly converted a rebound of her penalty kick, which was initially stopped by Lions goalkeeper Allison Spencer. Kelsey Tierney made four saves for the shutout. Columbia has won its last five home games against Cornell, with the Big Red's last road victory against the Lions coming via 2-1 scoreline Sept. 25, 2004.
 
ABOUT CENTRAL CONNECTICUT STATE
The Blue Devils carry a 2-8 record into the fourth game of their six-game home stand. CCSU fell to Providence, 3-1, last Thursday before suffering a 1-0 setback against Brown on Sunday. Those losses came on the heels of both of the team's victories to date, both by scores of 1-0. Jennifer Cafferky's goal off Kelly Halligan corner kick with seven seconds left in the first half sent CCSU past Mass.-Lowell on Sept. 8, then Danielle Pearse scored a golden goal against Colgate on Sept. 11. … CCSU has scored five goals in its 10 games. Freshman forward/midfielder Anya Bornstein and junior forward Laura Casanovas Diaz are tied for the team scoring lead with three points on one goal and one assist apiece. … Senior Nicki Turley is the team's primary goalkeeper, posting a 2-6 record, 1.69 goals against average, .772 save percentage and two shutouts.
 
THE SERIES WITH CENTRAL CONNECTICUT STATE
This is the first meeting between the programs. Cornell is 7-3 against current members of the Northeast Conference after its 2-1 victory Sept. 27, 2015 at Wagner.
 
UP NEXT
The Big Red returns to Berman Field at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30 for its first Ivy League home game against Penn. Cornell then hops back on the road for its next two games over a holiday weekend, taking on Harvard at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8 and Colgate at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 10 in the team's non-league finale.