ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's soccer team will hit the road for an Ivy League contest for the first time this season, visiting Penn on Friday night. The Big Red will be looking to win at the Quakers' home field for the first time since 1995.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Cornell at Penn
DATE: Friday, Sept. 29, 2017
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Rhodes Field – Philadelphia (natural surface)
RECORDS: Cornell 2-4-1, 0-0 Ivy League; Penn 2-5-2, 1-0 Ivy League
VIDEO: Ivy League Network
LIVE STATS: PennAthletics.com
UPDATES: @CUBigRedGameday

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is coming off its first draw of the season, when it survived 110 scoreless minutes in 90-degree heat on an artificial surface at Fairleigh Dickinson. Sophomore Chrissy Mayer made 13 saves to earn a clean sheet in her first collegiate start. The Big Red used 18 field players in the non-league game against FDU, with 15 of them logging at least 45 minutes. … Cornell opened its Ivy League season last Friday with a 2-0 loss against Columbia in Ithaca. The Lions scored off a corner kick in the fourth minute, then tacked on the insurance goal about 19 minute later. … Sophomore defender Kaili Gregory scored her first collegiate goal and was part of the back line's stifling performance in a 1-0 victory over Maine on Sept. 16. Senior midfielder Katerina Weikert earned a penalty kick in the game's 17th minute, setting the stage for Gregory's powerful left-footed finish into the low netting to the Maine goalkeeper's left. Gregory also teamed with freshman Maddie Hoitink for 90 minutes in central defense, with junior goalkeeper Meghan Kennedy needing to make just one save for her first clean sheet of the season and the fourth of her career. … Gregory, senior forward Paige DeLoach, sophomore forward Kennedy Yearby and freshman midfielder Shelby Wray have scored the Big Red's four goals on the year. … Kennedy has started six of the team's seven games in goal. After garnering All-Ivy League honorable mention last year, she leads the circuit in saves per game (5.60).
 
HIGHLIGHTS OF SUNDAY'S GAME at FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON

 
HIGHLIGHTS OF FRIDAY'S GAME vs. COLUMBIA

 
HEAD COACH DWIGHT HORNIBROOK
After serving as an assistant coach for five seasons, Dwight Hornibrook was named the head coach in February 2017. While he's in his first season at the helm of the Big Red, he has 17 years of head coaching experience with the men's soccer programs at Houghton and SUNY Cortland. After joining the Cornell women's soccer team, Hornibrook had helped the Big Red win 30 games over the last five years — the program's highest total in such a span since 2002-06. Hornibrook's overall record as a head coach is 184-119-31. After a three-year professional career, two-time Cornell captain goalkeeper Tori Christ '14 joins the Big Red as an assistant coach. Megan Giles is the team's other assistant coach after serving as the volunteer assistant coach with the Big Red last year. Dana Daniels '17 now fills the role of volunteer assistant coach after completing a four-year career with Cornell as both a goalkeeper and field player.
 
MAYER ON THE MARK
Playing in her hometown state of New Jersey, sophomore goalkeeper Chrissy Mayer made her first collegiate start last Sunday at Fairleigh Dickinson and made 13 saves to earn a shutout. It was the highest save total for a Cornell goalkeeper since Oct. 26, 2008, when Kelly Murphy '12 had 13 stops in a 2-0 blanking of host Brown. Mayer has now made 18 saves in four career appearances without yielding a goal.
 
CASE IN POINTS
Of Cornell's 36 points last season, 32 were notched by players who return to the squad this year. Also, eight of the team's 16 goals from its memorable 2015 season were scored by players on its current squad — four from senior Paige DeLoach, two from junior Jessica Ritchie and one each from seniors Carolyn Ruoff and Tess Pullano.
 
A CALL TO ARMBANDS
Seniors Kaylee Fitzgerald and Whitney Farber are serving as the Big Red's co-captains this season. Both players figure to be among the leading contributors on the back line this season, with Fitzgerald shifting back to central defense after playing much of her first three years on East Hill as a holding midfielder. Cornell carries eight seniors on its roster of 28 this season.

NATIONAL APPEAL
The Big Red has 14 different states, the District of Columbia and the province of Alberta represented on the team roster. The most represented state on the Big Red is California, which is called home by six players. Five hail from New York, four from New Jersey, two each from Illinois, Maryland and Ohio, and one each from Nevada, Oregon, Virginia, Wisconsin, the District of Columbia and Alberta. Head coach Dwight Hornibrook also hails from Canada, native to the New Brunswick capital of Fredericton.
 
ABOUT PENN
The Quakers have scored just four goals in nine games, but one them powered a 1-0 victory last Sunday at Harvard. By handing the defending Ivy League champion Crimson its first league loss since 2015, Penn improved to 2-5-2. It's other victory was also of the 1-0 variety, with Erica Higa's scrambly first-minute goal standing up in a Sept. 11 triumph over Delaware. … Higa leads the team in scoring with four points on two goals. Emma Loving scored the winner against Harvard, and Allie Trzaska has the Quakers' other goal this season. … Sophomore Kitty Qu has started eight of Penn's nine games in goal, posting a 2-3-2 record with a 0.63 goals against average, .857 save percentage and three shutouts.
 
THE SERIES WITH PENN
The Quakers have a 17-7-2 advantage in the all-time series against the Big Red, including a 5-0 victory last year at Berman Field. The Big Red's last trip to Rhodes Field in 2015 was a scoreless draw, marking the first time Penn hasn't defeated Cornell at the facility since its dedication in 2002. The Big Red's last victory at Penn came in 1995, when the team went undefeated in Ivy League play and tied a program record with 11 victories.

UP NEXT
Cornell returns to Berman Field for a pair of home games in a three-day stretch over a holiday weekend. The Big Red first takes on Harvard at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7 in an Ivy League contest, then wraps up the non-league portion of its schedule at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 9 against visiting Colgate.