GAME INFORMATION
GAME #15: #11/11 Cornell Big Red vs. Harvard
TIME: Noon
DATE: Saturday, April 29, 2017
PLACE: Schoellkopf Field — Ithaca, N.Y. 
LIVE VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
RECORDS: Cornell 10-4 (5-1 Ivy), Harvard 8-6 (4-2 Ivy)

Game Notes: Cornell

About the Big Red
• Cornell enters the weekend at 10-4 overall and 5-1 in Ivy League play following a heartbreaking 12-11 loss in double-overtime to #7/8 Princeton on April 22.
• Trailing by four just minutes into the second half, Cornell fought back for a two-goal lead before Princeton tied it with three seconds left in regulation and then won it in the second overtime period.
• Senior Renee Poullott made a career-high 15 saves, including four in the first three minutes of overtime, to keep the Big Red in the game… she has posted a .515 save percentage and an 8.33 goals against average this season.
• Senior Amie Dickson leads the team in points (54) and assists (30) while senior tri-captain Catherine Ellis is tops in goals (32) and second in points (44). 
• Senior tri-captain Catie Smith leads the team in draw controls (30), caused turnovers (30) and ground balls (38).
• All four of Cornell's losses have come against teams currently ranked: #5 Penn State (9-8), #17 UAlbany (11-10), #10 Syracuse (11-8) and #6/7 Princeton (12-11).

About the Crimson
• Harvard is coming off a 13-10 loss to #8/7 Penn and now sits at 8-6 overall and 4-2 in conference play. 
• The team is scoring an average of 13.50 goals per game while allowing teams to score 11.71 goals per game.
• Marisa Romeo leads the team with 68 points on team-highs in both goals (46) and assists (22).
• Meredith Brown has started all 14 games in goal for the Crimson, posting an 11.77 goals against average and a .385 save percentage.
• Harvard has earned a spot in the conference tournament for the fourth straight season.

The Series with the Crimson
• Cornell trails the overall series with Harvard 14-23 all-time but is 4-1 in the last five outings.
• Last year, Cornell held Harvard scoreless for over 41 minutes and had a string of eight-straight goals in an 11-3 victory in Cambridge.
• Senior Renee Poullott made 10 saves for the win; senior Amie Dickson had four goals while seniors Catherine Ellis and Kristy Gilbert and junior Joey Coffy each had two.
• All 14 of Cornell's victories in the series have come under the watch of head coach Jenny Graap, as she has a 14-5 record overall against Harvard.

A Win Would…
• Give Cornell a share of its second Ivy League title and first since 2006.
• Move the Big Red to 11-4 overall and 6-1 in Ivy League play.
• Bump Cornell's all-time record against Harvard to 15-23.
• Move head Coach Jenny Graap to 15-5 all-time against the Crimson.

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.
• 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.
• Her 200th overall career win came 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.

Class of 2017
• Prior to Saturday's Ivy League tilt, the Big Red will take the opportunity to honor the seven members of its senior class.
• Amie Dickson, Meredith Baker, Christie Powell, Renee Poullott and tri-captains Kristy Gilbert, Catherine Ellis, and Catie Smith make up the senior class.
• With Saturday's game against Harvard, Ellis is set to tie Emily Tripodi '16 for a program record at 66 games played.
• The Class of 2017 has won 40 games, including 18 Ivy League contests during their tenure.
• They have qualified for the Ivy League Tournament each year and combined for three All-Ivy League team honors and three All-Ivy Tournament team honors.
• The group has totaled 397 points on 271 goals and 126 assists, picked up 383 ground balls and caused 192 turnovers while making 408 saves.

Playoff Picture
• While the Ivy League tournament field is set (Cornell, Princeton, Penn and Harvard), the seeds and site are still to be determined.
• Cornell, Penn and Princeton are all tied for first-place with 5-1 conference records with Cornell earning the tie-break. 
• Should all three teams win this weekend, Cornell would host the tournament based on a plus-5 goal differential against the other two squads.
• Cornell owns the head-to-head over Penn, which owns the head-to-head over Princeton, which owns the head-to-head over Cornell.

Keeping Turnovers to a Minimum
• Harvard and Cornell both enter the game ranked in the top four nationally in turnovers per game.
• The Crimson is third overall with 13.71 turnovers per game while Cornell sits fourth with an average of 13.79.
• #1 Maryland leads the nation with its 12.50 average while #17 UAlbany is second with 13.36.

Dickson with the Assist(s) 
• Senior Amie Dickson's assist against Dartmouth on April 15 moved her into third place all-time in program history and she now has 74 in her career.
• Her 69th career assist also made her the only player in program history to sit in the top three in both assists and draw controls (129). 
• Dickson has 30 helpers on the year and is eight away from overtaking Emily Tripodi '16 for the single-season assist record.

Ellis Hits 100
• With a three goal performance at Rutgers on April 1, tri-captain Catherine Ellis became the 15th player in program history to record 100 career goals.
• Ellis is the only player on the roster to record at least 30 goals in a season, doing so with 38 in her sophomore campaign and now 32 as a senior.
• The senior leads the team in goals this season with 32 and has 44 points total, just two away from her career-high of 46 from 2015.

Free-Position Success
• With three free-position goals on April 18 against Syracuse, junior Taylor Reed tied the program's single game record. 
• Reed's hat trick also gave Cornell 46 on the year to set the program record for team free-position goals in a season, a number which is continuing to grow at 48.

Point Streaks
• Senior Amie Dickson and sophomore Sarah Phillips both enter the game against Harvard with 14 game point streaks.
• In finding the scoresheet in every game this season, Dickson has accumulated the first 50 point season (54) in two years.
• Phillips also holds the longest active goal scoring streak at nine games since senior tri-captain Catherine Ellis had a 14 game streak that dated to the 2016 season snapped against UAlbany on April 11.

Road Warriors
• With a 14-12 win at Dartmouth on April 15, Cornell set a program record for the best away-from-Ithaca start to a season at 7-0.
• 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 and claim the New York State Championship. 

Renee Says No
• Goalkeeper Renee Poullott made a career-high 15 saves on April 22 against Princeton, breaking her previous career-high of 14 set just four days before against Syracuse.
• The senior is currently eighth in the nation with an 8.33 goals against average while her .513 save percentage is seventh 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… she made a then career-high 13 saves against Rutgers on April 1.
• Poullott has now made at least 10 saves in a game on 12 occasions in her career.
• She sits at 38 career wins, two back from tying the all-time record of 40, held by Carrie Giancola.

Balanced Offense
• Cornell has had at least six different goal scorers in 11 of its 14 games played this season.
• 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, Brown and Dartmouth.
• Cornell has had 13 different players find the net this season.

Multi-Goal Games
• Nine different Big Red players have posted at least one multi-goal outing this season.
• Senior Catherine Ellis sophomore Sarah Phillips each have 10 multi-goal efforts. 
• Junior Taylor Reed and senior Amie Dickson have registered multiple goals in eight and seven games, respectively.
• Senior Kristy Gilbert has registered seven such outings and sophomore Tomasina Leska has four.
• Junior Ida Farinholt has two games with multiple goals while freshman Caroline Allen and sophomore Christie Raymond each have one.

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.

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 #4/5 USC on March 19.
• 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. 

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.

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.

Up Next
• The Big Red will now take on the Ivy League Tournament for the sixth consecutive season while looking to defend its tournament title from 2016.
• Cornell's exact opponent in the semifinal round is yet to be determined but it is certain to be Penn, Princeton or Harvard.