MATCH INFORMATION
MATCH #11: Cornell at Harvard
MATCH TIME: Friday, Sept. 29, 2017; 7:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Malkin Athletic Center (Cambridge, Mass.)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 37-27
LAST MEETING: Harvard won, 3-1; Nov. 4, 2016 (Ithaca, N.Y.)
2017 RECORDS: Cornell (5-5, 1-0 Ivy); Harvard (6-4, 1-0 Ivy)
LIVE STATS
LIVE VIDEO 
 
MATCH #12: Cornell at Dartmouth
MATCH TIME: Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017; 5:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Leede Arena (Hanover, N.H.)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 41-17
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 3-0; Nov. 5, 2016 (Ithaca, N.Y.)
2017 RECORDS: Cornell (5-5, 1-0 Ivy); Dartmouth (4-6, 0-1 Ivy)
LIVE STATS  
LIVE VIDEO   
 
THE MATCHUP: The Big Red volleyball team opens up a four-game road trip this weekend as it travels to Harvard on Friday, Sept. 29 and Dartmouth on Saturday, Sept. 30. Cornell split its meetings with the Crimson and the Big Green a year ago, but still holds significant leads in both series, posting a 37-27 advantage all-time against Harvard and a record of 41-17 all-time vs. Dartmouth.

THE SERIES VS. HARVARD: Cornell and Harvard first met in 1977, a 2-0 Big Red victory. Cornell went on to win the next 10 contests before the Crimson earned its first win in the series during the 1988 campaign. The Big Red had won nine straight meetings, dating back to Oct. 9, 2004, before Harvard earned a series sweep in both the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Cornell swept the Crimson again in 2011, but Harvard went on to win eight consecutive outings prior to the teams splitting the two meetings last season as Cornell improved to 37-27 in the all-time series.
 
SCOUTING THE CRIMSON: After a slow start, Harvard has won five straight, including its Ivy League opener vs. Dartmouth last weekend, to improve to 6-4 on the season. The Crimson has a balanced attack with four players averaging more than 2.00 kills per set, led by Christina Cornelius (2.63), while Maclaine Fields leads the team and ranks third in the Ivy League with a .368 hitting percentage. Setter Erin MCarthy ranks second in the conference with 10.16 assists per set and freshman Sydney Vach has seen increased action as the season has worn on and currently leads the team with 3.17 digs per set.
 
THE SERIES VS. DARTMOUTH: Cornell's series with Dartmouth began in 1981 and the Big Red has dominated from the beginning, winning the first 13 meetings before falling to the Big Green for the first time on Oct. 12, 1996. Cornell owns a 41-17 record in the all-time series, winning 22 of the last 33 outings.
 
SCOUTING THE BIG GREEN: Dartmouth has lost three of its last four outings, including its conference opener at Harvard, to slip to 4-6 on the year. The Big Green's strength is at the net, as the team leads the Ivy League in blocks per game (2.54) and in opponent hitting percentage (.177). Carley Tower leads Dartmouth, and ranks fourth in the conference, in blocks per set (1.18). Behind Tower, freshman Lauren Douglas ranks fifth in the league in digs per set (3.50). The Big Green offense is run by setter Tori Dozier, whose 7.03 assist per set are good for fifth in the conference. Sara Lindquist leads Dartmouth with 2.19 kills per set, while Abby Kott has a team-high .280 hitting percentage.
 
THE HEAD COACH: Trudy Vande Berg is in her third season as The Wendy Schaenen '79 Head Coach Of Volleyball at Cornell (23-35, .397) ... 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.
 
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: After leading the Big Red to a thrilling 3-1 victory over Columbia on Sept. 23, senior Emily Wemhoff was named the Ivy League Player of the Week. The honor was the first of Wemhoff's career and the first for the Big Red this season. Wemhoff recorded a career-high 23 kills as the only Cornell player to reach double-digits.  The 23 kills are the most in the Ivy League so far this season and also rank 17th in the Cornell history for kills in a four-set match. Wemhoff finished the match with a .405 hitting percentage (23-6-42), the best single-game performance of her career, to go along with four digs, two assists and one block.
 
MOVING UP: The following Big Red are moving up the Cornell rankings …
Emily Wemhoff
* 12th – Kills (715)
* 18th – Points (782.5)
Kit McCarty
* 14th – Kills (661)
Chelsea Sincox
* 17th – Assists (306)
Lauren Donnelly
* 18th – Kills (277)
Kiley McPeek
* 19th – Digs (741)
 
NCAA TEAM RANKINGS: As a team, Cornell entered the week ranked …
* 2nd – Attacks per Set (41.97)
* 15th – Digs per Set (17.62)
* 42nd – Assists per Set (13.00)
* 59th – Kills per Set (13.70)
* 100th – Blocks per Set (2.22)
 
NCAA INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS: Big Red players entered the week ranked …
* 26th – Digs per Set (Kiley McPeek – 5.27)
* 38th – Aces per Set (Kiley McPeek – 0.46)
* 38th – Blocks per Set (Jenna Phelps – 1.37)
* 50th – Aces per Set (Jenna Phelps – 0.44)
* 54th – Attacks per Set (Emily Wemhoff – 11.11)
* 102nd – Kills per Set (Emily Wemhoff – 3.59)
 
IVY RANKINGS: The Big Red ranks in the top half of the Ivy League in …
* Kills – 1st (13.70)
* Assists – 1st (13.00)
* Digs – 1st (17.62)
* Service Aces – 2nd (1.24)
* Blocks – 4th (2.22)
 
INDIVIDUAL IVY RANKINGS: Big Red players rank in the Ivy League in …
* Kills per Set – Emily Wemhoff (2nd – 3.59); Kit McCarty (7th – 2.89)
* Assists per Set – Chelsea Sincox (8th – 5.05)
* Service Aces per Set – Kiley McPeek (2nd – 0.46); Jenna Phelps (3rd – 0.44)
* Blocks per Set – Jenna Phelps (1st – 1.37)
* Digs per Set – Kiley McPeek (1st – 5.27); Samanta Arenas (8th – 3.14)
* Points per Set – Emily Wemhoff (4th – 3.81); Kit McCarty (8th – 3.20)
 
DIGS A LOT: Kiley McPeek leads the conference with 5.27 digs per set. That mark is the highest by a Cornell player since Natasha Rowland averaged 5.67 digs during the 2014 season.
 
BIG HITTER: Emily Wemhoff currently leads the Big Red with 3.59 kills per set, the most by a Cornell player since Elizabeth Bishop averaged 4.5 kills per set during the 2006 season.
 
THE SWITCH: Two of Cornell's biggest contributors this season – Kiley McPeek and Chelsa Sincox – are playing positions that are significantly different than when they arrived on East Hill. McPeek joined the Big Red as an outside hitter and moved into the Libero role midway through the 2016 season. Sincox has spent the past three seasons as one of the team's top defensive specialists, before becoming one of the team's primary setters in the 2017 campaign.
 
GRINDING OUT A WIN: The Big Red is 4-2 in matches that go more than three sets. Cornell is just 1-3 in three-set matches.
 
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 … During the summer of 2016, she did an internship in Istanbul, Turkey and was in the country during an 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 ... Her brother graduated from Cornell.
* 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.
 
ALL TOURNAMENT TEAM:
* Through the first two tournaments of the season, Kiley McPeek picked up a pair of all-tournament selections (JMU's Tropical Smoothie Invitational; Big Red Invitational).
* Emily Wemhoff was named to the Big Red Invitational All-Tournament team. 
* Kit McCarty and Kara Rogers were named to the Colgate Invitational All-Tournament Team.
 
BIG RED INVITATIONAL: Cornell came out of the Big Red Invitational with two wins for the first time since 2007, and just missed out on earning its first tournament title since 2005, as St. John's took the crown by tiebreaker (set winning percentage). 
 
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.
 
UP NEXT: The Big Red remains on the road next weekend, traveling to Brown on Friday, Oct. 6 and Yale on Saturday, Oct. 7. Cornell has dominated the Bears, owning a 40-26 record overall and winning 20 of the last 30 meetings after splitting the series last season, while the Bulldogs have won the past 18 meetings to take a 45-25 lead in the all-time series.