ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's soccer team will look to get back into the Ivy League fray at 7 p.m. Friday, when it opens the home portion of its league slate against Penn at Berman Field.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Penn at Cornell
DATE: Friday, Sept. 30, 2016
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Berman Field – Ithaca, N.Y. (natural surface)
RECORDS: Cornell 3-5-1, 0-1 Ivy League; Penn 4-2-1, 0-1 Ivy League
VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
LIVE UPDATES: @CUBigRedGameday
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is 3-5-1 after a scoreless draw Sunday afternoon at Central Connecticut State, though the Big Red had the lion's share of quality scoring opportunities. Cornell started the weekend with a 2-0 loss to Columbia in its Ivy League opener, with both goals coming on precise shots from distance. … A dearth of offense has plagued the Big Red through the season's first month, 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 six 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.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Highlights from last Sunday's 0-0 draw at Central Connecticut State …
 

Highlights from last Friday's 2-0 loss at Columbia
 
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 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 (1.09). 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 PENN
The Quakers suffered a rare home loss in Ivy League play on Saturday, when Harvard converted a penalty kick in the 29th minute to secure a 1-0 victory at Rhodes Field. It marked just the second time since 2010 that Penn would lose at home to a league opponent. Freshman Kitty Qu made four saves in the loss for the Quakers, which ended the team's five-game unbeaten streak. A scoreless draw against Drexel on Sept. 18 came on the tail end of four straight wins against Robert Morris, Lafayette, Delaware and Towson. … Freshman forward Emma Loving leads the team with three goals and her six points are tied for the team lead with freshman midfielder Emily Sands, who has two goals and two assists. Sophomore forward Sasha Stephens has five points on a goal and three assists, and senior forward Olivia Blaber and senior defender Paige Lombard have two goals apiece. … Qu has played all but 11-plus minutes in goal for Penn, sporting a 4-1-1 record, 0.56 goals against average, .826 save percentage and three shutouts. She was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week on Sept. 19. … Nine of Penn's 12 goals to date have come in the first half.
 
THE SERIES WITH PENN
Penn rode a 15-game series winning streak coming into its last visit to Berman Field, but the Big Red staked itself to a three-goal lead within 32 minutes and held on for a 3-2 victory on Oct. 3, 2014. Junior forward Meera Dheer's first collegiate goal proved to be the winner in the game, and senior midfielder Elizabeth Crowell opened the scoring in the game. The teams then played to one of the Big Red's four scoreless draws during the 2015 campaign, leaving the Big Red's deficit in the series at 16-7-2.
 
UP NEXT
The Big Red stays within the Ivy League for its next game at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8 at Harvard before competing in its final non-league game of the season at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 10 at Colgate. Cornell's next home game is at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15 against Yale.