GAME INFORMATION
GAME #5: Cornell vs. No. 24 Rutgers
GAME TIME: Friday, Sept. 15, at 5:00 p.m.
GAME SITE: Marsha Dodson Field (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Rutgers leads, 6-3
LAST MEETING: Rutgers won, 4-2, Sept. 11, 2016 (Piscataway, N.J.)
2017 RECORDS: Cornell (4-0, 0-0 Ivy); Rutgers (4-2, 0-0 B10)
LIVE STATS
LIVE VIDEO
 
THE STORY LINE: The Cornell field hockey team, off to its best start since the 2009 season, will put its eight-game winning streak on the line when it welcomes No. 24 Rutgers to Marsha Dodson Field on Friday, Sept. 15 at 5 p.m.
 
THE SERIES WITH RUTGERS: Cornell and Rutgers have played nine games since first meeting in 1996. The Big Red won the first meeting before dropping back-to-back games in 1997 and 1998. Cornell would go on to win two in a row again in 2004 and 2006, but have lost the last four outings, to see the Scarlet Knights take the 6-3 lead in the series.
 
SCOUTING THE SCARLET KNIGHTS: No. 24 Rutgers opened the 2017 season with four consecutive wins, including dominant victories over Kent State (4-1), Towson (9-0) and Old Dominions (5-1), before falling to No. 12 Princeton and St. Joseph's last weekend to slip to 4-2 on the year. Freshman Daphne Groothuis leads the Scarlet Knights' offense with six goals and three assists, while junior Linde van Schaik and sophomore Austyn Cuneo have added three goals apiece. Freshman Gianna Glatz has made all six starts in goal and has posted a .733 save percentage and a 1.50 goals-against average.
 
VS. THE BIG TEN: Cornell has a 3-8 record all-time vs. the current members of the Big 10, with all three victories coming against Ruters (3-6). The Big Red is also 0-1 all-time vs. Michigan State and Penn State. Cornell has never faced Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Northwestern, or Ohio State ... Coach Hornbrook is 2-6 all-time vs. the B1G.
 
THE HEAD COACH: Cornell head coach Donna Hornibrook is in her 14th season at Cornell (123-95, .564) ... She is the winningest coach in Big Red field hockey history, having passed Shelby (Pontz) Bowman, who registered 115 wins over 19 years … Hornibrook became the sixth coach in Cornell field hockey history in January 2004 ... She has a 294-142-10 (.670) record as a head coach, including a 111-39-4 mark at Houghton and a 60-8-6 record at New Brunswick.
 
THE UNDEFEATED: Cornell is one of just four undefeated field hockey teams remaining in the nation, joining UConn, Syracuse and Penn State.
 
WINNING WAYS: With the win over Maine on Sept. 10, Cornell tied the school record for consecutive victories (8) and will look to set the new standard when it welcomes No. 24 Rutgers to Marsha Dodson Field on Friday night.
 
STRONG START: With its four wins to open the season, Cornell is off to its best start (4-0) since the 2009 squad went 7-0.
 
THE 300: Head Coach Donna Hornibrook is closing in on 300 career wins, entering the weekend with 294 victories to her credit.  To date, she has 123 wins with Cornell, 111 at Houghton, and 60 at New Brunswick.
 
SHUT OUT STREAK: Cornell posted three consecutive shutouts to start the season, the most since the 2015 squad earned four straight from Sept. 11 to Sept. 20.
 
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Kelly Johnson was named the Ivy League Player of the Week on Sept. 11 after matching a career-high with 10 saves to help Cornell upset No. 24 Maine, 2-0, in a neutral site game.  Of Johnson's 10 saves, seven came in the final 31 minutes as the Big Red clung to the one-goal advantage. 
 
GREAT GOALIE DUO: Senior Kelly Johnson and sophomore Maddie Henry have split time through Cornell's first four games of the season and have combined for three shutouts. Together, they have helped Cornell to rank second in the nation in goals-against average (0.50), save percentage (.926) and shutouts per game (0.75).
 
NCAA RANKINGS (TEAM):
* 1st – Win Percentage (1.000)
* 2nd – Goals Against Average (0.50)
* 2nd – Save Percentage (.926)
* 2nd – Shutouts Per Game (0.75)
 
NCAA RANKINGS (INDIVIDUAL):
Maddie Henry
* 1st – Goals Against Average (0.00)
* 1st – Save Percentage (1.000)
* 1st – Win Percentage (1.000)
Kelly Johnson
* 1st – Win Percentage - 1.000
* 10th – Save Percentage (.846)
* 11th – Goals Against Average (1.00)
Isabel Josephs
* 23rd – Assists Per Game (.75)
 
CAREER RECORD WATCH:
Kelly Johnson
* Has set the Cornell record for wins (24), surpassing Alex Botte '12, Kaitlin Tierney '04 and Yanaka Bernal '91, who all previously held the record with 19 career wins.
* Ranks fourth in shutouts (7) … Needs one more to move into a second place tie with Carolyn Horner '14 and Karen Kuhm '78.
Krysten Mayers
* Ranks third in goals (37) … Needs one more to move into a tie with Marisa Siergiej (2012-15) in second place and four more to match Linda Miller's (1980-83) school record.
* Ranks fifth in points (86) … Needs five more to move into a tie with Hannah Balleza (2010-13) in fourth place and eight more to match the school record set by Catie DeStio (2007-10).
* Ranks third in game-winning goals (9) … Needs two more to move into a tie with Linda Miller (1980-83) in third place.
 
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: The Big Red is 49-25 all-time on Marsha Dodson Field. Collectively, the team has outscored its opponents by a margin of 172-112 and has taken significantly more shots (1,276-765) than its opponents. The defense has been equally solid in the circle, allowing just 390 penalty corners (5.3 per game).
 
KNOCK THREE TIMES: When the Big Red fell to Penn, 4-3, on Sept. 21, 2013 it marked only the fourth time in Coach Hornibrook's career with Cornell that the team scored three goals and lost the contest. Under Coach Hornibrook, the Big Red is 79-4 in games in which it scores at least three goals, a mark that was raised when it defeated No. 24 Maine (3-2) on Sept. 10.
 
EARLY LEADS: Scoring first has been a big part of the Big Red's success in recent years. Since Coach Hornibrook has taken over the program, Cornell has posted an impressive 106-14 record in games in which they have scored first. Conversely, the team has won only 17 games in which they have had to come back from an early deficit to win. The first was Coach Hornibrook's very first victory with the team, a 6-3 win over Lehigh in 2004, with the latest coming on Oct. 23, 2016 as Cornell overcame an early 1-0 deficit to defeat Rider, 3-1.
 
CLOSE CALLS: Cornell's 3-2 victory over No. 24 Maine on Sept. 10 continued the Big Red's trend of playing in one-goal games. Since the start of the 2006 season, the Big Red has won 101 games, with 50 coming in one-goal games (.495), including 13 in overtime. . During that same span, Cornell has lost 72 games, with 43 of those coming by a single goal (.606), including 18 in overtime
 
OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN: Seniors Katie Carlson, Isabel Josephs, and Sam McILwrick have been selected as team captains for the 2017 season. McILwrick served as co-captain during the 2016 season as well, making her just the ninth player in Big Red field hockey history to be named captain twice.
 
RETURNING REGIONAL ALL-AMERICANS: Cornell returns a pair of Mideast Region All-American second-team selections to the roster in seniors Krysten Mayers and Sam McILwrick.
 
BIG RED INTERNATIONAL: This past summer, Cornell sophomore Rose Gorski helped Team USA to a silver medals at the 2017 Maccabi Games.
 
10 WINS: Cornell finished the 2016 season with a 10-7 record, winning at least 10 games in nine of Coach Hornibrooks' 13 seasons. She is the only field hockey coach in Big Red history to lead the team to a single 10-win season.
 
RECAPPING 2016: Cornell finished the 2016 season on a four-game winning streak, including an upset of No. 13 Princeton, to post a 10-7 record overall and a mark of 4-3 in the Ivy League. The Big Red finished ranked third in the Ivy League, posting its fourth consecutive top-three finish and earned double-digit wins for the fourth straight season and the ninth time in head coach Donna Hornibrook's 13-year career. With the Big Red's win over Brown on Oct. 21, Hornibrook earned the 116th win of her career with Cornell, surpassing Shelby (Pontz) Bowman to become the winningest coach in the history of the Big Red field hockey program. Following the season, the trio of Katy Weeks '17, Krysten Mayers '18 and Sam McILwrick '18 were honored by the Ivy League and the NFHCA. Weeks was named All-Ivy for the fourth time of her illustrious career, taking home first-team honors, along with McILwrick, while Mayers was named to the second-team. Weeks went on to be named to the All-Mideast Region first-team, while both Mayers and McILwrick were named to the second team. 
 
UP NEXT: The Big Red travels to Lafayette on Monday, Sept. 18 for a 7:00 p.m. contest. Cornell has won two straight vs. the Leopards but the teams have not met since 2007.