GAME INFORMATION
GAME #6: #11/11 Cornell Big Red vs. #4/5 USC Trojans
TIME: Noon
DATE: Sunday, March 19, 2017
PLACE: Nickerson Field — Boston, Mass. (neutral site)
LIVE STATS: USCTrojans.com
RECORDS: Cornell 4-1 (2-0 Ivy), USC Trojans 5-1 (1-0 MPSF)

GAME NOTES: Cornell | USC

About the Big Red
• Cornell enters the game against USC with a 4-1 overall record and undefeated in its last three games.
• The Big Red moved to 2-0 in Ancient Eight play on March 11 with a come-from-behind win, 14-11, over Columbia thanks to five goals from senior Catherine Ellis and five assists from senior Amie Dickson.
• On March 7 against Colgate, Dickson paced the Big Red offense with five points (2g, 3a) while junior Taylor Reed notched a hat trick in Cornell's 13-6 win on Schoellkopf Field. 
• Cornell traveled to Penn on March 4 and came away with a 10-4 win over the then-ranked #10/13 Quakers.
• The team used a scoring run of four goals to close out the first half with a 6-4 lead and then scored the only four goals of the second half to take the game.
• It was the first time that Cornell held an opponent scoreless in a half since March 20, 2011 and the first back-to-back wins over Penn since regular season tilts in 2005 and 2006.
• In the home opener against #6/6 Penn State on Feb. 25, the Big Red gave the Nittany Lions a hard-fought battle but ultimately fell, 9-8, and in the season-opener, the team traveled to Villanova and earned an 18-6 win over the Wildcats.

About the Trojans
• USC begins its East Coast trip with a 5-1 overall record – and will put it to the test against Dartmouth on Friday before taking on the Big Red two days later.
• The Trojans are on a season-high three-game winning streak and have won 25 of their last 27 games. 
• USC is led by Michaela Michael (14g, 10a), a two-time All-American attacker, and a trio of senior attackers in Kyle Drexel (9g, 5a), Cynthia Del Core (11g, 5a) and Gabby McMahon (12g, 4a). 
• On March 8 and 13, the Trojans put up a pair of 15-4 wins over Boston University and New Hampshire, respectively. 
• Against New Hampshire, Michael scored a hat trick in the span of one minute and 19 seconds and totaled eight points by assisting on five other goals in the game.
• In goal, Gussie Johns holds a 6.97 goals against average and is averaging 4.33 ground balls per game. 

The Series with the Trojans
• This is the first meeting between the Big Red and the Trojans.
• USC is 2-0 against Cornell's fellow Ivy League school, Dartmouth.
• This game will be a matchup of USC's first-ranked scoring defense (6.33) and Cornell's fifth-ranked scoring defense (7.20). 

A Win Would…
• Move Cornell to 1-0 all-time against USC.
• Give the Big Red its fourth-straight win.
• Bump Cornell's record this season against ranked opponents to 2-1.  

About Head Coach Jenny Graap '86
• Now in her 20th season directing the Cornell women's lacrosse program in 2017, Jenny Graap amassed a 180-120 record in her first 19 seasons as the head coach of the Big Red, with her 200th overall career win coming in the form of a 11-10 win over Penn in the 2016 Ivy league Tournament Championship. 
• Graap began her head coaching career at George Mason, taking over the program in its first sponsored season in 1994 and amassing a 21-44 record over four seasons.
• Cornell has made the Ivy League tournament each of the last five seasons and six of the seven years that the tournament has been held. 
• Graap guided the Big Red to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments in 2001 and 2002 – reaching the semifinals in the latter year – and also brought the team to the tournament in 2006 and 2016. 
• Since she returned to her alma mater in 1997, Graap has led the team to postseason play nine times and has won at least 10 games eight times as well.

Defensive Dominance
• Cornell is giving up just 7.20 goals per game, the fifth best mark in the nation, while senior goalkeeper Renee Poullott is second overall in the country with a 6.73 goals against average.
• The team held then #10/13 Penn scoreless in the second half on March 4, marking the first time since 2011 that the Big Red held a team without a goal in a half. 
• The Big Red held Colgate scoreless for over 30 minutes of play in its 13-6 win on March 7.
• Cornell went the first four games of the season without allowing an opponent to score more than nine goals.
• The last time Cornell held opponents to nine or less goals in each of the first four games of the season was 2008.

Balanced Offense
• Through Cornell's first five games, 10 different players have contributed on the scoresheet for the Big Red.
• Nine different players scored in the season-opening win over Villanova and six different players found the net for the Big Red against both Penn State and Penn.
• Against Colgate on March 7, Cornell got goals from seven different players and points from eight different players and then on March 11, the Big Red again had seven different players find the net and nine players notch at least one point.

Smith Named to Tewaaraton Watch List
• Senior tri-captain Catie Smith was named to the 2017 Tewaaraton Award women's watch list on Feb. 28.
• The Tewaaraton Award annually honors the top male and female college lacrosse player in the United States.
• The list includes the top players across all three NCAA divisions.
• Smith, a defender, leads the Big Red in ground balls (12) through two games and has caused seven turnovers.
• In 2016, she set the single-season program record with 41 caused turnovers.

Hot Streak
• Senior tri-captain Catherine Ellis has a nine game goal streak dating back to the 2016 season.
• Ellis has scored 19 goals and assisted on five others in those nine games.
• The senior sits just five goals away from her 100th career goal. 

Gilbert Scores Six
• In Cornell's season-opening 18-6 win over Villanova, senior tri-captain Kristy Gilbert scored a career-high six goals.
• Gilbert is the first Big Red player to score exactly six goals in a game since senior Catherine Ellis did it in a double-overtime, 11-10, win over Dartmouth on April 5, 2014.  
• It was the 15th time in program history that a player scored six goals in a game.

Record Book Update
• Senior Renee Poullott is fourth all-time in program history with 319 career saves.
• Senior Amie Dickson is sixth all-time in program history with 56 assists and needs four more to move into the top five.
• Dickson currently sits third all-time with 112 career draw controls, 29 behind Jaimee Reynolds in second with 141. 
• Senior Catie Smith is tied for fourth all-time with 74 career caused turnovers and needs just two more to crack the all-time top three.

Ivy Honors
• Senior defender Catie Smith was named the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week for the week of March 6.
• The tri-captain had four caused turnovers, two ground balls and two draw controls in helping the Big Red defense hold Penn scoreless in the second half of Cornell's 10-4 win on March 4. 
• It was the third career Ivy League weekly honor for Smith.

Preseason All-Americans
• The Big Red had four players named to the Inside Lacrosse Preseason All-American list.
• Senior tri-captain and defender Catie Smith was named to the second team.
• Junior midfielders Joey Coffy and Taylor Reed and senior goalkeeper Renee Poullott were all named honorable mention Preseason All-Americans.

Meet the Captains
• Seniors Catherine Ellis, Kristy Gilbert and Catie Smith will be serving as Cornell's captains for the 2017 season.
• Ellis was second on the team in scoring last year (22g, 12a), notched the memorable overtime-winner against Princeton in the Ivy League Tournament semifinal and was named to the Ivy League All-Tournament Team.
• Gilbert – a key component of the Big Red midfield who excels on both sides of the ball – appeared in all 19 contests last year and started 18 of them while putting up 24 points (18g, 6a). 
• Smith, a 2016 First-Team All-Ivy selection and Third-Team IWLCA All-American, set a new single-season program record and led the Ivy League with 41 caused turnovers last season.

Meet the New Kids
• Mary Kate Bonanni – who has an instinctive style of play – and Alex Monello are the two new faces in the backfield.
• Lucy Pedlow, Caroline Allen and Taylor Lis will enter the midfield fold for the Big Red.
• Isabel Zachara will factor into the attack rotation while Katie McGahan is the lone newcomer between the pipes. 
• The Class of 2020 includes five US Lacrosse All-Americans (Allen, Lis, McGahan, Monello, Pedlow) and six US Lacrosse Academic All-Americans (Bonanni, Lis, McGahan, Monello, Pedlow, Zachara).
• The class hails from six different states: Pennsylvania (Allen), New York (Bonanni), New Jersey (Lis, Zachara), Georgia (McGahan), Oregon (Monello), North Carolina (Pedlow).

Formidable Foes
• The 2017 schedule includes five games against teams that were in last season's NCAA Tournament.
• Non-conference tilts with two national quarterfinalists in Penn State and the University of Southern California as well as a matchup against Syracuse awaits Cornell.
• Games against Penn and Princeton will double as not only Ancient Eight battles but also pit the Big Red up against fellow 2016 NCAA Tournament teams.

2016 Ivy League Tournament Champions
• The Big Red took home the 2016 Ivy League Tournament Championship title.
• Junior Taylor Reed was named the Most Outstanding Player while Olivia Mattyasovszky '16, junior Joey Coffy and seniors Amie Dickson, Catherine Ellis and Renee Poullott were named to the All-Tournament Team.
• Cornell's win over Penn in the championship game marked just the second time in the tournament's seven-year history that a team other than Penn or Princeton claimed the crown. 
• The championship game victory was also head coach Jenny Graap's 200th career win.

Up Next
• The team will return to Ivy League play with a road game at Yale on March 25.
• Game time is set for 1 p.m.