MATCH INFORMATION
MATCH #1: Cornell vs. James Madison
MATCH TIME: Friday, Sept. 1, 2017; 7:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Sinclair Gymnasium (Harrisonburg, Va.)
SERIES RECORD: Series tied, 1-1
LAST MEETING: JMU won, 3-0; Sept. 2, 2016
2017 RECORDS: Cornell (0-0, 0-0 Ivy); James Madison (3-0, 0-0 CAA)

MATCH #2: Cornell vs. Drake
MATCH TIME: Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017; 10:00 a.m.
MATCH SITE: Sinclair Gymnasium (Harrisonburg, Va.)
SERIES RECORD: First Meeting
LAST MEETING: First Meeting
* 2017 RECORDS: Cornell (0-0, 0-0 Ivy); Drake (3-1, 0-0 MVC)

MATCH #3: Cornell vs. Hampton
MATCH TIME: Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017; 5:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Sinclair Gymnasium (Harrisonburg, Va.)
SERIES RECORD: First Meeting
LAST MEETING: First Meeting
* 2017 RECORDS: Cornell (0-0, 0-0 Ivy); Hampton (0-3, 0-0 MEAC)

* records prior to Friday evening's contest.

THE TROPICAL SMOOTHIE INVITATIONAL: The Big Red opens the season this weekend on the road at the Tropical Smoothie Invitational at James Madison. Cornell will face the host Dukes on Friday, Sept. 1 at 7 p.m., before returning the next day to take on Drake (10 a.m.) and Hampton (5 p.m.).

SEASON OPENERS: Cornell is 27-15-1 all-time in season openers. Since 1995, the Big Red is an impressive 14-6 in the first match of the season.
 
THE SERIES VS. JAMES MADISON: Cornell is 1-1 all-time vs. JMU, winning the first meeting 3-1 during the 1992 season, before falling to the Dukes last season, 3-0.
 
VS. THE CAA: The Big Red has a 14-23 record all-time against the current members of the CAA. Cornell holds a winning record vs. Towson (3-2), and William & Mary (3-1), is tied with James Madison (1-1), and has a losing mark vs. Delaware (2-3), Hofstra (1-7), or Northeastern (4-9). The Big Red has never faced Charleston, Elon, or UNC-Williamsburg in women's volleyball … Coach Vande Berg is 1-1 against the CAA after earning her first head coaching victory with a 3-1 decision over William & Mary in 2015.
 
THE SERIES VS. DRAKE: First Meeting. 
 
VS. THE MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE: Cornell is 0-6 all-time vs. the current members of the Missouri Valley Conference. The Big Red is 0-3 all-time vs. Loyola-Chicago and also has a losing record vs. Bradley (0-1), Indiana State (0-1) and UNI (0-1). Cornell has never faced Drake, Evansville, Illinois State, Missouri State, Southern Illinois, or Valparaiso in volleyball.
               
 THE SERIES VS. HAMPTON:  First Meeting.
 
VS. THE MEAC: Cornell holds a 10-0 record all-time vs. the current members of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, thanks mostly to a 7-0 record against Howard. The Big Red is also 1-0 against Delaware State, Morgan State and North Carolina A&T, but has never faced Bethune-Cookman, Coppin State, Florida A&M, Hampton, Maryland Eastern Shore, Norfolk State, , North Carolina Central, South Carolina State or Savannah State.
 
THE HEAD COACH: Trudy Vande Berg is in her third season as The Wendy Schaenen '79 Head Coach Of Volleyball at Cornell (18-30, .375) ... Vande Berg became the 11th head coach in Cornell volleyball history in March 2015 after spending three seasons as the Big Red's top assistant coach ... Prior to her time at Cornell, Vande Berg spent time as an assistant coach at North Florida, Duke, and Iowa State and as a volunteer assistant at Wisconsin. She also served as head coach of the Team Iowa Ice professional club in the Premier Volleyball League, where she guided the team to the championship in her second year at the helm.
 
RECAPPING 2016: Coming off its best performance since 2008, Cornell finished the 2016 season with a 12-12 record overall, posting six more victories than it did the year prior, the best single-season turnaround since the 2003 team went 21-4 following a 14-12 performance in 2002. With its record of 6-8 in the Ivy League, the Big Red finished fifth in the conference standings for its highest finish since the 2008 team placed third.
 
RETURNING ALL-IVY: The Big Red returns a pair of All-Ivy performers from a season ago, as Kit McCarty and Carla Sganderlla earned honorable mention accolades. Arguably the Big Red's most improved player, McCarty finished the 2016 season ranked ninth in the Ivy League standings with a .267 hitting percentage, while placing just outside the top 10 with 2.62 kills  per set. Sganderlla led the Big Red for the second year in a row in kills with 3.13 per set, a mark that ranked third in the Ivy League this season, and 21st overall in the history of Cornell volleyball. 

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: Paige Becker, Zoe Chamness, Alena Madar and Lauren Stubbs have joined the Big Red for the 2017 season. The four student-athletes hail from four different states and consists of one right side hitter, one setter, one middle blocker, and one outside hitter.
 
DID YOU KNOW:
* Kiley McPeek has 10 relatives that are Cornell alumni. Her father, Jeff '82, played sprint football for the Big Red, while her great uncle Richard Boerner was a member of the Cornell heavyweight varsity eight that won the IRA national championship in 1958 … Two summers ago, she did an internship in Istanbul, Turkey and was in the country during the attempted coup d'état.
* Kit McCarty is one of eight children – she has four brothers and three sisters.
* Zoe Lequeux is a French citizen.
* Carla Sganderlla can speak Portuguese.
* Kara Rogers lived in Germany for a year … Her sister is a member of the Yale swimming team.
* Maddy Sroufe's younger sister plays volleyball at VCU.
 
UP NEXT: The Big Red opens the home portion of the 2017 season next weekend as it hosts the Cornell Invitational. The home opener comes against Binghamton on Friday, Sept. 8 at 7 p.m. The following day, the Big Red will face St. John's at 11 a.m., before closing the tournament against Valparaiso at 7:00 p.m. The Cornell Invitational opens when the St. John's faces Valparaiso on Friday at 5 p.m. Additional games on Saturday will feature Valparaiso vs. Binghamton (1:00 p.m.), and Binghamton vs. St. John's (5:00 p.m.).