GAME INFORMATION
GAME #11: #8/8 Cornell Big Red vs. UAlbany Great Danes
TIME: 5 p.m.
DATE: Tuesday, April 11, 2017
PLACE: Schoellkopf Field — Ithaca, N.Y.
LIVE VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
RECORDS: Cornell 9-1 (4-0 Ivy), UAlbany 7-4 (3-1 AE)
Game Notes: Cornell


About the Big Red
• Cornell went 2-0 last week, topping Binghamton (17-3) on April 4 and Ivy League foe Brown (11-8) on April 8.
• The Big Red is carrying an eight-game winning streak into the match against UAlbany, tied for the second longest in program history.
• Renee Poullott made a career-high 13 saves and Catherine Ellis scored her 100th career goal as well as the game-winning goal in a 12-9 win at Rutgers on April 1.
• The Big Red went undefeated in the month of March,topping Penn (10-4), Colgate (13-6), Columbia (14-11), USC (11-10) and Yale (15-6).

About the Great Danes
• On Saturday, UAlbany topped UMass Lowell (15-4) to move earn its second straight win and move to 7-4 overall.
• The Great Danes have kept turnovers to a minimum this season, coming in second in the NCAA at 13.18 per game.
• Albany and Cornell have five opponents in common in 2017; the Great Danes lost to Penn State (20-9) and Syracuse (13-12), got a win over Yale (13-11), and will close out the regular season at Dartmouth and Binghamton.  
• Sarah Martin leads Albany in points (43g, 25a) and goals and is second in assists while Emma Powlin (19g, 27a) and Dakotah Savitcheff (29g, 0a) are tied for second in points.
• Erin Leghart has seen the majority of minutes in between the pipes for the Great Danes, posting a 10.28 goals against average, a .414 save percentage and a 6-3 record.

The Series with the Great Danes
• The two squads first met in 2013 – a 15-13 Cornell victory – and each now holds a 2-2 record in the series.
• Cornell took last year's matchup, 9-5, in Albany on the strength of Amie Dickson's three goals and one assist and Taylor Reed's two goals and one assist. 

A Win Would…
• Move the Big Red to 10-1 overall.
• Give Cornell its ninth-straight win for the second longest winning streak in program history. 
• Give Cornell a 3-2 edge in the all-time series with UAlbany.

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.

New York State of Mind
• Since 2010, Cornell is 26-10 against schools from the state of New York while the current senior class holds a record of 14-5.
• The Big Red has five New York teams on its schedule this season – Colgate, Columbia, Binghamton, UAlbany, and Syracuse – and so far is 3-0 in those contests.  

Defensive Dominance
• Cornell is giving up just 7.11 goals per game, the third-best mark in the nation, and has held opponents to six-or-less goals in five of 10 games this season and single digit goals in eight of 10.
• 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. 
• Against Binghamton on April 4, Cornell held the Bearcats scoreless for the first 23:44 of the game.
• The Big Red held Colgate scoreless for over 30 minutes of play in its 13-6 win on March 7 and shutout Yale for the final 25:25 of a 15-6 comeback win on March 25. 
• On March 19 against USC, the Big Red limited a Trojan offense that had been averaging 14.83 goals per game to just 10. 
• Cornell went the first four games of the season without allowing an opponent to score more than nine goals, something the program hadn't done since 2008.

Renee Says No
• Goalkeeper Renee Poullott made a career-high 13 saves on April 1 in a 12-9 win at Rutgers.
• The senior is currently second in the nation with a 7.13 goals against average while her .537 save percentage is fifth overall.
• She made 10 saves in Cornell's 11-10 win over USC on March 19 and then repeated that save total in the very next outing, a 15-6 win at Yale on March 25.
• Poullott has now made at least 10 saves in a game on nine occasions in her career.

Assists by Amie
• After recording four assists in the first three games of the season, Amie Dickson registered 12 helpers in the next three.
• The senior had five assists in the Big Red's comeback win at Columbia on March 11, which tied a career-high, and added four more in Cornell's 11-10 upset of USC on March 19.
• She also had another four-assist outing – including on three of the first five goals – in a 17-3 win over Binghamton on April 4. 
• Dickson's 12 assists over those three games are the most over such a span for a Cornell player since Emily Tripodi earned 15 assists over three games in April 2013.

Notable Nines
• The Big Red opened up the game against Binghamton on April 4 with nine unanswered goals, the longest scoring stretch to open a game on record in program history.
• Twice before Cornell has scored eight straight goals to open a game, doing it against Columbia in 2016 and Binghamton in 2014.
• Cornell's win over Yale on March 25 also included a stretch of nine unanswered goals for the Big Red.
• Both equaled the longest stretch of unanswered goals for Cornell since a 23-6 win at California on March 29, 2015 that included nine-straight tallies.
 
Hot Streak
• Senior tri-captain Catherine Ellis has a 14 game goal streak dating back to the 2016 season.
• Ellis has scored 32 goals and assisted on 13 others in those 14 games.
• With a two goal outing against Rutgers on April 1, Ellis became the 15th player in program history to record 100 career goals. 

Balanced Offense
• In each of the first 10 games of the season, Cornell has had at least six different goal scorers.
• Nine different players scored in the season-opening win over Villanova and also against Binghamton. 
• The Big Red's comeback win over Yale included eight different goal scorers. 
• Against Columbia, Colgate, and Rutgers seven different players found the back of the net.
• The Big Red got goals from six different players in games against Penn State, Penn, USC and Brown.

Multi-Goal Games
• Seven different Big Red players have posted at least one multi-goal outing this season.
• Junior Taylor Reed has registered multiple goals in six of Cornell's nine games so far this season.
• Senior Catherine Ellis and sophomore Sarah Phillips each have eight multi-goal efforts. 
• Seniors Kristy Gilbert and Amie Dickson have scored multiple goals in five games for the Big Red.
• Sophomore Tomasina Leska has three while freshman Caroline Allen and sophomore Christie Raymond have one each. 

Road Warriors
• With its 12-9 win at Rutgers on April 1, the team tied a program record for the best road start in program history at 5-0. 
• Cornell went undefeated in its first six road games of the 1987 season before dropping an overtime game at Princeton, 6-5.
• That year's squad went on to finish with a road record of 9-1 away from Ithaca – and claim the New York State Championship. 

Record Book Update
• Senior Renee Poullott is third all-time in program history with 367 career saves, 37 away from second all-time.
• Senior Amie Dickson is fourth all-time with 67 assists and needs one more to move into the top three.
• Dickson currently sits third all-time with 122 career draw controls, 19 outside the number two spot. 
• Senior Catie Smith is third all-time with 82 career caused turnovers.

Milestone Watch
• Junior Joey Coffy recently hit 50 career points and needs eight more goals to reach 50 for her career.
• Senior Amie Dickson is three draw controls away from 125 (and recently hit 75 career goals).
• Senior Catherine Ellis recently eclipsed 100 career goals and 50 ground balls.
• Senior Kristy Gilbert recently hit 75 career points and needs one more ground ball to hit 50.
• Senior goalkeeper Renee Poullott needs three more wins to tie for the most in program history.
• Junior Taylor Reed is just two goals away from her 50th career tally. 
• Senior Catie Smith is four ground balls away from 100 for her career. 

Ivy Honors
• Goalkeeper Renee Poullott was named the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week on March 20.
• The senior made 10 saves and picked up two ground balls in Cornell's 11-10 win over then ranked #4/5 USC on March 19.
• It was the fifth career Ivy League weekly honor for Poullott.
• Senior defender Catie Smith was named the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week on 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.

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.
• In 2016, she set the single-season program record with 41 caused turnovers.

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), and was named to the Ivy League All-Tournament Team.
• Gilbert appeared in all 19 contests last year and started 18 of them while putting up 24 points (18g, 6a). 
• Smith set a new single-season program record and led the Ivy League with 41 caused turnovers last season.

Up Next
• The Big Red will travel to Dartmouth on Saturday for an Ancient Eight battle with Dartmouth.
• The team will then make the short trek to Syracuse on April 18 for the final non-conference matchup of the season.