GAME INFORMATION
GAME #3: #15/16 Cornell Big Red at #10/13 Penn
TIME: 1 P.M.
DATE: Saturday, March 4, 2017
PLACE: Franklin Field — Philadelphia, Pa.
LIVE VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: PennAthletics.com
RECORDS: Cornell 1-1 (0-0 Ivy), Penn 3-0 (0-0 Ivy)

About the Big Red
• In Saturday's home opener against #6/6 Penn State, the Big Red gave the Nittany Lions a hard-fought battle but ultimately fell, 9-8, in the rain soaked matchup of two 2016 NCAA tournament teams.
• Penn State used runs to open each half and, after a goal from sophomore Sarah Phillips made it 9-8 with 90 seconds to play, the visitors were able to fend off Cornell's last possession.
• Phillips and senior Catherine Ellis each had two goals while junior Taylor Reed assisted on a pair of goals and senior Amie Dickson posted a goal and an assist.
• Cornell opened up the season with a road match on Feb. 18, traveling to Villanova and coming away with an 18-6 win over the Wildcats.
• Senior tri-captain Kristy Gilbert led the Big Red with a career-high six goals while her classmate Dickson (3g, 1a) and sophomore Tomasina Leska (2g, 2a) each had four points.
• The 12-goal margin of victory was Cornell's largest since a 23-6 win over California on March 29, 2015 and was the sixth-consecutive win in the season-opener for the Big Red.

About the Quakers
• Penn has played three non-conference road games to date, opening with a 9-7 win at Delaware, a 10-7 win at Johns Hopkins and an 11-9 win at Rutgers.
• Entering the week, Alex Condon's 5.0 goals per game leads the Ancient Eight and ranks her second in the nation.
• Penn finished the 2016 Ivy League slate with a 6-1 record - sharing the regular season title with Princeton – and finished with an overall record of 15-5 after making a run to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals.

The Series with the Quakers
• Penn and Cornell met twice last season, with Penn taking the regular season meeting, 10-6, but Cornell taking the Ivy League Tournament Championship game in a thrilling, 11-10, game.
• The win in the championship game snapped the Big Red's 12-game winless streak against the Quakers and was also head coach Jenny Graap's 200th career victory.
• The teams have met in the Ivy League Tournament for three-consecutive seasons

A Win Would…
• Bring the Big Red's record in the all-time series to 17-29.
• Be Cornell's second-straight against Penn and the first in the regular season since 2006.
• Be the Big Red's first back-to-back wins against Penn since the 2005 and 2006 seasons.

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 win coming in the form of a 11-10 win over Penn in the 2016 Ivy league Tournament Championship. 
• 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.

Smith Named to Tewaaraton Watch List
• Senior tri-captain Catie Smith was named to the 2017 Tewaaraton Award women's watch list.
• 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 (10) through two games and has caused three turnovers.
• In 2016, she set the single-season program record with 41 caused turnovers.

Balanced Offense
• In just two games played, 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 against Penn State. 

Hot Streaks
• Dating back to last season, junior Joey Coffy has scored at least one goal in 16 straight games.
• Over that span, Coffy has put up 31 points on 25 goals and six assists. 
• Senior tri-captain Catherine Ellis has a six-game goal streak dating back to 2016.
• Ellis has scored 10 goals and assisted on two others in those six games. 

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 fifth all-time in program history with 300 career saves and needs 10 to overtake Sonia Novik for fourth all-time. 
• Senior Amie Dickson needs just four more assists to reach 50 for her career and to take over the eighth spot all-time in program history.
• Dickson currently sits fourth all-time with 105 career draw controls, five behind Cari Hills in third with 110.
• Senior Catie Smith is seventh all-time with 66 career caused turnovers and needs three more to crack the all-time top five. 

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.

Big Red Rewind
• Cornell began the 2016 season by getting off to an 8-0 start, which was the best start to a season in program history and finished the season with a 14-5 record, marking the second-most wins in program history.
• After taking home the Ivy League Tournament Championship, the team qualified for the program's first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2006.
• Cornell also earned the right to host the first two rounds on Schoellkopf Field and got its first NCAA tournament win since 2002 with a 15-11 win over Canisius in the first round.
• Olivia Mattyasovszky '16 (33g, 4a), Emily Tripodi '16 (9g, 27a) and senior Amie Dickson (28g, 8a) all tied for the team lead in scoring with 36 points each  while juniors Taylor Reed (23g, 11a), Catherine Ellis (22g, 12a) and Joey Coffy (26g, 5a) all eclipsed the 30 point mark. 
• Senior Renee Poullott started all 19 games, recording a .465 save percentage, 7.36 goals against average, seven caused turnovers and a team-high 40 groundballs.
• As a team, the Big Red held opponents to seven goals or fewer on 11 occassions.
• Tripodi set a school record with 115 career assists and finished with 161 career points for eighth all-time in Big Red History. 
• Senior Catie Smith set the single-season program record with 41 caused turnovers. 

Up Next
• The team returns to Schoellkopf Field on Tuesday evening to take on regional rival, Colgate.
• Game time is set for 5 p.m.