GAME INFORMATION
GAME #3: Cornell vs. UMass Lowell
GAME TIME: Saturday, Nov. 17, at 12:00 p.m.
GAME SITE: Newman Arena (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 1-0
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 71-53, Dec. 31, 2017 (Lowell, Mass.)
2018-19 RECORDS: Cornell (1-1, 0-0 Ivy); UMass Lowell (2-1, 0-0 America East)
LIVE STATS: https://bit.ly/2PYqZhG
LIVE VIDEO: https://es.pn/2Bb4cH0
 
Full Game Notes (PDF)
 
THE MATCHUP: After having its Thursday night contest at Colgate postponed due to inclement weather, the Big Red women's basketball team is anxious to get back to action when it welcomes UMass Lowell to Newman Arena for a noon contest on Saturday, Nov. 17. Cornell enters the game with a record of 1-1, while the River Hawks sit at 2-1 after picking up its first win of the season against Fisher College of the NAIA in their last outing.  
 
QUICK HITS:
• Cornell's Thursday night game at Colgate was postponed due to inclement weather.
• The Big Red picked up its first win of the season on Monday night with a 48-34 victory over UAlbany.
• The 34 points scored by the Great Danes were the fewest by an opponent during head coach Dayna Smith's tenure, and the fewest by a Big Red opponent since Coppin State scored 33 in a Cornell victory during the 2001-02 season.
• UMass Lowell is the third of four America East teams the Big Red will face this season. Cornell lost to Binghamton and defeated UAlbany with Stony Brook scheduled for Dec. 1. 
• Head coach Dayna Smith and a pair of River Hawks coaches – head coach Tom Garrick and assistant coach Denise King – are all Rhode Island alumni.
• The teams will have five common opponents this season – Albany, Binghamton, Colgate, Dartmouth, and Stony Brook.
 
THE SERIES VS. UMASS LOWELL: The teams met for the first time last season, a 71-53 victory for the Big Red in Lowell, Mass.
 
A WIN WOULD:
• improve the Big Red's record at 2-1 on the season.
• be the third in a row at Newman Arena.
• be the second in a row vs. the America East.
• make Cornell 2-0 in the series.
• make Coach Smith 15-18 vs. the America East. 


CORNELL VS. THE AMERICA EAST: Cornell improved to 24-28 all-time vs. the current members of the America East Conference after a 48-34 win over UAlbany last week.
• The Big Red holds a winning record vs. Albany (6-1), UMass Lowell (1-0), and UMBC (2-0).
• Cornell has a losing record vs. Binghamton (8-10), Hartford (0-2), Maine (0-1), New Hampshire (1-5), Stony Brook (2-3) and Vermont (4-6).
• Coach Smith is 14-18 all-time vs. the America East.
 
HEAD COACH DAYNA SMITH: In her 17th season at the helm of the Big Red program, head coach Dayna Smith ranks fourth overall in Ivy League women's basketball history in years served as a head coach in the conference.
• Only one active coach, Harvard's Kathy Delaney-Smith (36th season), ranks ahead of Cornell's Smith.
• Smith is the winningest coach in Cornell history, and reached the 150-win mark for her career with the team's overtime victory vs. Dartmouth on Jan. 30, 2016.
• She currently stands at 177 career victories.
 
STARTING STATS: The Big Red has used two different starting line-ups through the first two games of the season.
• Samantha Widmann and Danielle Jorgenson lead the team with 29 consecutive starts.
• Laura Bagwell-Katalanich made her first career start in the season opener at Binghamton.
• Dylan Higgins made her first career start in the contest vs. UAlbany on Nov. 12.
 
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Four new players saw their first action for the Big Red in the season opener at Binghamton – Laura Bagwell-Katalanich, Theresa Grace Mbanefo, Caitlyn Smith and Samantha Will.
 
WHAT WAS LOST: The Big Red graduated two seniors from the 2017-18 squad, and lost two other letter winners, as well as one non-letter winner.
• The five players accounted for just 25 percent of Cornell's points and rebounds.
 
WHAT REMAINS: Cornell returns three starters and 10 letter winners from a year ago.  
• The team returns its top scorer and rebounder in Samantha Widmann, as well as its second leading scorer, Samantha Clement.
• Overall, the squad returns 75% of its scoring and rebounding
• All but one returning letter winner played in at least 20 contests. 
 
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: The Big Red added four players to the 2018-19 squad, three freshman and one junior college transfer.
• The group hails from three different states – Minnesota (2), Florida and New Hampshire.
• The group consists of two forwards (Annika Hoff, Theresa Grace Mbanefo), one guard (Samantha Will) and one point guard (Caitlyn Smith).
 
IVY PRESEASON RANKINGS: The Big Red was picked eighth overall in the 2018-19 Ivy League media preseason poll.
• Princeton was selected to repeat, as the Tigers garnered 133 points and 14 first-place votes.
• Penn and Harvard were neck-and-neck for second and third, respectively, with the Quakers earning two first-place votes and 107 points and the Crimson receiving one first-place vote and 104 points. 
• Yale took fourth with 89 points, as the voters selected a repeat of last year's top-four teams.
• Brown was picked to place fifth with 66 points, followed by Dartmouth (55), Columbia (30) and Cornell (28).
 
LIVE AND ON THE AIR: The Big Red will have all 27 of its regular season games broadcast this season.
• 20 games, including 12 Ivy League contests, will be broadcast on ESPN+.
• Two Ivy League games will be broadcast on ESPN3.
• ESPN+ is available through the ESPN app and ESPN.com for $4.99 / month and $49.99 / year. The subscription includes over 175 Ivy League men's and women's basketball games as well as thousands of other live events from other collegiate conferences and professional sports leagues. 
• Three games will be broadcast on the Patriot League Network (Colgate, Lehigh, Lafayette).
• Cornell will have one game each on the Big Ten Network Plus (Minnesota) and the Mountain West Network (Colorado State).
 
DON'T I NOW YOU?: Shelby Lyman '14 returned to Cornell as an assistant coach prior to the 2017-18 season.
• One of the most prolific 3-point shooters in Cornell history, Lyman returned to East Hill after a successful three-year stint as an assistant coach at Division III powerhouse St. John Fisher College, helping the Cardinals to an Empire 8 championship in 2015 and a pair of NCAA DIII Tournament appearances.  
• Lyman still ranks among the top 20 in Cornell history in assists (14th – 219), steals (14th – 122), and minutes played (13th – 3096). She finished her career with 718 career points.
• A native of Snohomish, Wash., Lyman earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government, before obtaining an MBA from St. John Fisher.
 
RECAPPING THE 2017-18 SEASON: The Big Red finished the season with a 7-20 record overall and a mark of 3-11 in the Ivy League.
 
UP NEXT: The Big Red begins a four-game road trip when it heads to Minnesota (Nov. 23) and Colorado State (Nov. 25) during the Thanksgiving break.