GAME INFORMATION
GAME #7: Cornell at Penn
GAME TIME: Saturday, Sept. 23, at 12:00 p.m.
GAME SITE: Ellen Vagelos Field (Philadelphia, Pa.)
SERIES RECORD: Penn leads, 25-14-2
LAST MEETING: Penn won, 1-0, Sept. 24, 2016 (Ithaca, N.Y.)
2017 RECORDS: Cornell (5-1, 0-0 Ivy); Penn (2-4, 0-0 Ivy)
LIVE STATS
LIVE VIDEO
 
THE STORY LINE: The Big Red field hockey team opens Ivy League play this weekend in Philadelphia as it takes on Penn at Ellen Vagelos Field on Saturday, Sept. 23 at noon. Cornell, ranked 20th in the first RPI of the season, is off to one of its best starts in recent years and enters the game with a record of 5-1 overall. The Quakers own a 2-4 record of the year, but have played a demanding schedule with all four of their losses coming to ranked opponents. 
 
IVY OPENERS: Cornell opens its 39th season of Ivy League play this weekend against Penn.
* The Big Red is 16-19-3 all-time in conference openers, thanks mostly to a 13-7 record since 1997.
* Cornell has played only four of the seven Ivy League teams in its season openers through the years.
* Its best records in Ivy openers are against Yale (1-0) and Columbia (6-1).
* The Big Red has played Penn and Princeton more than any other team in conference openers.
* Cornell has met Penn 16 times in its conference opener, posting a 6-9-1 record against the Quakers.
* The Big Red has posted a 3-9-2 record in Ivy openers against the Tigers, but the two teams have not met in the season opener since 1999.
 
THE SERIES WITH PENN: The Big Red and the Quakers have squared off 41 times since first meeting in 1976 and Penn holds a 25-14-2 advantage in the all-time series. The Quakers dominated the series early on, posting a 17-2-2 record from 1978-1998, but Cornell has won seven of the last 12. The series has been incredibly close in recent years, with 18 of the last 25 meetings between the two squads being decided by one goal, with nine overtime contests … Coach Hornibrook is 7-6 all-time vs. the Quakers.
 
SCOUTING THE QUAKERS: Penn fell to No. 19 Iowa, 3-2, last weekend to slip to 2-4 on the year. All four of the Quakers losses have come to ranked opponents and its 3-1 loss to No. 1 UNC was the only one that came by more than a single goal. Alexa Hoover leads the team with five goals and has registered at least one point in each of the past five games, while four other Quakers have registered one goal on the season. In the cage, Liz Mata has played every second for Penn and has posted a .676 save percentage to go along with a 1.90 goals-against average.
 
THE HEAD COACH: Cornell head coach Donna Hornibrook is in her 14th season at Cornell (124-96, .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 295-143-10 (.670) record as a head coach, including a 111-39-4 mark at Houghton and a 60-8-6 record at New Brunswick.
 
RPI RANKINGS: Cornel is ranked 20th in the first RPI of the season, one of three Ivy League teams in the top 20, joining Harvard (17) and Princeton (18). As a conference, the Ancient Eight has the third most teams in the top 20, behind only the ACC (seven) and Big Ten (four).
 
SHUT OUT STREAK:
* Dating back to last season, sophomore Maddie Henry has gone more than 240 minutes without allowing a goal. That is the second longest streak in program history behind only Sue Zieman, who went 349:30 over the final five games of the 1985 season without giving up a goal.
* During her streak, Zieman posted four straight shutouts, two of which went to double overtime, before allowing a goal at the 39:30 mark in a win over Cortland in the season finale.  

ONE-GOAL GAMES: Cornell opened the 2017 campaign with five consecutive one-goal decisions, posting a 4-1 record in the process.
* Cornell has had five or more one-goal games in a row 11 times in field hockey history.
* Of those 11 instances, only four have taken place during Coach Hornibrook's tenure and in three of the four the Big Red has posted a winning record (2006: 1-5).
* Of the seven instances prior to Coach Hornibrook's arrival, the Big Red posted a winning record just once (1988: 3-2).
* The last time the Big Red had five straight games decided by a single goal came during the 2012 season (3-2).
* The longest streak of one-goal games in Cornell history was nine and it came during the 1992 season and included one tied contest. During that streak, the Big Red went 1-7-1.
 
THE UNDEFEATED: At the time of its first loss of the season to No. 24 Rutgers on Sept. 15, Cornell was 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), previously set during the 2008-2009 seasons.
 
STRONG START: With its four wins to open the season, Cornell got 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, with 295 victories to her credit.  To date, she has 124 wins with Cornell, 111 at Houghton, and 60 at New Brunswick.
  
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 six games of the season and have combined for four shutouts. Together, they have helped Cornell to rank second in the nation in goals-against average (0.67), save percentage (.882) and shutouts per game (0.67).
 
NCAA RANKINGS (TEAM):
* 2nd – Goals Against Average (0.67)
* 2nd – Shutouts Per Game (0.67)
* 2nd – Save Percentage (.882)
* 9th – Win Percentage (.833)

NCAA RANKINGS (INDIVIDUAL): 
Maddie Henry
* 1st – Save Percentage (1.000)
* 1st – Goals Against Average (0.00)
* 1st – Win Percentage (1.000)
Isabel Josephs
* 30th – Assists Per Game (.67)
 
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.
* Ranks 14th in saves (134) … Needs 17 more to tie Lori Blutinger (2001-04) in 14th place.
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 (87) … Needs four more to move into a tie with Hannah Balleza (2010-13) in fourth place and seven 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.
* Ranks 17th in assists (13) … Needs one more to move into a four-way tie for 13th place.
 Katie Carlson
* Ranks 12th in points (50) … Needs eight more to move into a tie with Beth Paciello (1985-88) in 11th place and 10 more to move into the top 10.
* Ranks 12th in goals (18) … Needs four more to move into a tie with Katy Weeks (2013-16) in 11th place and eight more to move into the top 10.
* Ranks 13th in game-winning goals (5) … Needs one more to move into a tie with Abbi Horn (2005-08) and Kelly Boutin (1996-99) in 11th place and two more to move into the top 10.
* Ranks 13th in assists (14) … Needs one more to move into a four-way tie for ninth place.
Sam McILwrick
* Ranks fifth in defensive saves … Needs one more to move into a tie with Kimmy Gardner (2000-03) and Natalie Appleton (2006-09) in third place.
Maddie Henry
* Ranks 18th in wins (7) … Needs one more to move into a tie with Jane Matler (1978) and Shea Maultsby (1979-82) for 16th place.
* Ranks 17th in shutouts (2) … Needs one more to move into a tie with Shannon Prescott (2005-07) for 16th place and two more to move into the top 10.
 
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: The Big Red is 49-26 all-time on Marsha Dodson Field. Collectively, the team has outscored its opponents by a margin of 173-114 and has taken significantly more shots (1,282-777) than its opponents. The defense has been equally solid in the circle, allowing just 392 penalty corners (5.2 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 107-14 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 2-1 loss to No. 24 Rutgers on Sept. 15 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 73 games, with 44 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 welcomes Columbia (Sept. 30) and Lock Haven (Oct. 1) to Dodson Field next weekend. Cornell had a three-game winning streak against the Lions snapped last season, but still holds the significant 17-4 lead in the all-time series. Cornell defeated the Lady Eagles a season ago to cut LHU's lead in the series to 5-4. The meetings with the Lady Eagles have proven to be exciting over the years with seven of the last eight games being decided by a single goal, including five in overtime.