MATCH INFORMATION
MATCH #23: Cornell at Yale
MATCH TIME: Friday, Nov. 9, 2018; 7:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Lee Amphitheater (New Haven Conn.)
SERIES RECORD: Yale leads, 44-26
LAST MEETING: Yale won, 3-1; Oct. 6, 2018 (Ithaca, N.Y.)
2018 RECORDS: Cornell (13-9, 8-4 Ivy); Yale (17-4, 11-1 Ivy)
LIVE STATS: https://bit.ly/2Qmfr4r
LIVE VIDEO: https://es.pn/2DpxBzN
 
MATCH #24: Cornell at Brown
MATCH TIME: Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018; 5:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Pizzitola Sports Center (Providence, R.I.)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 43-26
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 3-2; Oct. 5, 2018 (Ithaca, N.Y.)
* 2018 RECORDS: Cornell (13-9, 8-4 Ivy); Brown (10-12, 3-9 Ivy)
LIVE STATS: https://bit.ly/2NTe7rS  
LIVE VIDEO: https://es.pn/2zsX3Qs
 
* records prior to Friday's contest
 
THE WEEKEND: The Cornell volleyball team heads into the final weekend of Ivy League action sitting in third place in the conference standings with a record of 13-9 overall and 8-4 in the Ancient Eight. The Big Red can finish no worse than third place, but still has an outside chance to climb as high as second with a pair of wins, coupled with a pair of Princeton losses. Cornell opens the weekend at Ivy League leader Yale (17-4, 11-1 Ivy) on Friday night. The following evening the Big Red takes on Brown (10-12, 3-9 Ivy). The match with the Bulldogs is slated for 7 p.m. and fans can follow on live stats at: https://bit.ly/2Qmfr4r. The contest with the Bears is scheduled for 5 p.m. and lives stats will be available at: https://bit.ly/2NTe7rS. Both matches can be viewed on ESPN+ at: https://es.pn/2IirH2V.
 
THE SERIES VS. YALE: Cornell and Yale first met in 1976, a 2-0 Bulldog victory. Yale went on to win the next four contests before the Big Red earned its first win in the series during the 1981 campaign.
* Cornell snapped the Bulldog's 19-match winning with a 3-0 sweep last season, but Yale still holds the lead in the all-time series, 44-26.
 
SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS: The 17-4 Bulldogs sit atop the Ivy League standings with a conference mark of 11-1 after winning nine in a row.
* The team controls its own destiny as it seeks its second consecutive Ivy title, and its seventh overall championship since the 2010 season.
* Yale's Kelly Wirth (sixth) and Ellis DeJardin (seventh) both rank in the top 10 in the Ivy League for kills per set with averages of 2.88 and 2.86, respectively.
* Defensively, Kate Swanson leads the conference with 4.99 digs per set.
* Setter Frances Arnautou sits second overall in the conference standings with 10.61 assists per set.
* The Bulldogs are an extremely tough serving team, ranking second in the Ivy League with two players – Gray Malia and Arnautou – ranking in the top 10.
 
THE SERIES VS. BROWN: Cornell's series with Brown began in the 1976 season and the Big Red has dominated from the beginning, winning the first seven meetings before falling to the Bears for the first time in 1984.
* Cornell owns a 43-26 record in the all-time series, winning 23 of the last 36 meetings.
* The Big Red has won four in a row in the series.
 
SCOUTING THE BEARS: Brown snapped a two-match skid with a victory over Harvard last Saturday to improve to 10-12 overall and 3-9 in the Ivy League.
* The Bears are led by Sabrina Stillwell, whose 3.70 kills per set leads the Ivy League.
* Eliza Grover has a team-high .257 hitting percentage.  
* Defensively, Paris Winkler leads the team and ranks eighth in the Ancient Eight with 3.63 digs per set.
* Freshmen setter Kristen Sellers ranks sixth in the Ivy League with 8.14 assists per set.
 
THE HEAD COACH: Trudy Vande Berg, the 2017 Ivy League Coach of the Year, is in her fourth season as The Wendy Schaenen '79 Head Coach Of Volleyball at Cornell (43-50, .462) ... 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.
 
EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS: The Big Red was picked to finish fourth overall in the 2018 Ivy League Volleyball Preseason Media Poll, but the team has secured at least a third place finish.
 
BACK-TO-BACK: Cornell will finish the 2018 season in at least third place in the conference standings.
The Big Red also finished in third place a year ago. The back-to-back third place finishes will be the best consecutive seasons by Cornell since the program won three straight titles following a second place finish from 2003 to 2006.
 
IVY WINS: The Big Red needs just one win this weekend to amass the most Ivy wins in a single season since the 2008 team went 9-5 in conference.
 
SEASON SWEEPS: Cornell has swept three Ivy League teams so far this season – Columbia, Dartmouth and Harvard.
* It was the first season sweep against the Lions since the 2013 campaign. 
* It was the first season sweep against the Big Green since the 2012 campaign. 
* It was the first season sweep against the Crimson since the 2011 campaign. 
 
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Jada Stackhouse was named the Ivy League Player of the Week on Oct. 22 after helping the Big Red earn its first season sweep of Columbia since the 2013 season.
* Samanta Arenas was named the Ivy League Player of the Week on Oct. 29 after helping Cornell post season sweeps over Dartmouth and Harvard for the first time since 2012 and 2011, respectively. .
* It was the first Ivy accolade for both players.
 
MOVING UP: The following Big Red are moving up the Cornell rankings …
* Jenna Phelps – Ninth in Block Assists (221); 13th in Total Blocks (247); 21st in Block Solos (26); 22nd in Service Aces (79); 27th in Points (664.5)
* Carla Sganderlla – 15th in Kills (702); 20th in Points (794.0)
* Jada Stackhouse – 22nd in Block Assists (156); 23rd in Total Blocks (182); 21st in Block Solos (26)
* Kara Rogers – 29th in Block Assists (119)
* Zoe Chamness – 15th in Assists (1,028)
* Katie Randolph – 19th in Assists (338)
* Lauren Donnelly – 20th in Assists (277)
* Lily Barber – 21st in Digs (737); 21st in Assists (214)
* Natalie Danenhauer – 25th in Service Aces (70)
 
NCAA TEAM RANKINGS: As a team, Cornell entered the week ranked among the top 100 in the NCAA …
* Opponent Hitting Percentage – 26th (.161)
 
NCAA INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS: The following Big Red players entered the week ranked …
* Jenna Phelps – 143rd – Hitting Percentage (.319)
* Jada Stackhouse – 174th – Blocks per Set (1.04)
* Lily Barber – 142nd – Digs per Set (4.31)
* Lily Barber – 190th – Total Digs (371)
* Jenna Phelps – 203rd – Blocks per Set (1.00)
 
IVY RANKINGS: Cornell is ranked in the top half of the Ivy League rankings in …
* Hitting Percentage (fourth – .201)
* Assists per set (third – 12.14)
* Kills per set (third – 12.93)
* Blocks per set (fourth – 2.13)
* Service Aces per set (fourth – 1.24)
* Digs per set (third – 15.53)
* Opponent Hitting Percentage (second – .161)
* Opponent Assists (first – 10.21)
* Opponent Kills (first – 10.93)
* Opponent Blocks (fourth – 2.24)
* Opponent Digs (third – 14.36)
 
INDIVIDUAL IVY RANKINGS: Cornell has players ranked in …
* Hitting Percentage – Jenna Phelps (fourth – .319); Jada Stackhouse (ninth – .275)
* Kills per set – Carla Sganderlla (fourth – 3.33); Samanta Arenas (ninth – 2.78)
* Assists per set – Zoe Chamness (seventh – 7.36)
* Blocks per set – Jada Stackhouse (sixth – 1.04); Jenna Phelps (eighth – 1.00)
* Digs per set – Lily Barber (third – 4.31)
* Points per set – Carla Sganderlla (fourth – 3.57); Samanta Arenas (10th – 3.14)
 
STRONG START: Cornell opened the season with four consecutive Ivy League victories for the first time since the 2005 season when the team opened Ivy play with 12 consecutive wins.
 
STREAKING: The Big Red posted a five-match winning streak earlier this season beginning with a win over Western Illinois on Sept. 15 and ending with a win vs. Brown on Oct. 5.
* The streak was the longest since the 2006 squad won nine consecutive to close out the regular season. 
 
PRESEASON POLL:  Cornell was picked to finish fourth overall with 79 points in the 2018 Ivy League Volleyball Preseason Media Poll.
* The Big Red came in behind third-place Harvard (97 points). Cornell and the Crimson tied for third in the conference standings in 2017, the highest finish for Cornell since 2006.
* Princeton (135 points) was picked to win its fourth-straight Ivy League title, edging second-place Yale by just 15 points.
* Rounding out the poll were Penn with 68 points, Columbia with 49 points, Dartmouth with 48 points and Brown with 20 points.
 
SEASON OPENERS: Cornell is 28-16-1 all-time in season openers. Since 1995, the Big Red is an impressive 15-7 after defeating Buffalo in the first match of the 2018 season.
 
THE CORNELL INVITATIONAL: For the second year in a row, the Big Red finished second to St. John's in the Cornell Invitational. Both years, the two teams posted identical records of 2-1, with the Red Strom winning the title by virtue of set win percentage.
 
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAMS:
* Lily Barber was named to both the Cornell Invitational and the Crusader Classic All-Tournament Teams.
* Carla Sganderlla was also named to the Cornell Invitational All-Tournament Team along with Barber.
* Jenna Phelps was named to the Flo Hyman Collegiate Cup All-Tournament Team.
 
TICKLE THE ALL-IVY: Trudy Vande Berg was voted the 2017 Ivy League Coach of the Year by her peers after leading the Big Red to its best season in more than a decade. In addition to Vande Berg, Kiley McPeek (first-team), Jenna Phelps (second-team), and Kit McCarty (honorable mention) were also named to the All-Ivy team.
 
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: Madison Baptiste, Kelly Behrbaum, Jillienne Bennett, Avery Hanan, Blake Hollis, and Casey Justus have joined the Big Red for the upcoming 2018 season. The six student-athletes all hail from different states, and the group consists of two pin hitters, two middle blockers, one right side hitter, and one outside hitter.
 
HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE: Ten new members, including volleyball great Joanna Weiss, have been selected for induction into the Cornell University Athletics Hall of Fame at the 41st annual ceremonies to be held Saturday, Sept. 22 on the Cornell campus. Weiss was a two-time first-team All-Ivy League selection and is one of just two Big Red athletes to be named to the AVCA All-Northeast Region team, earning honorable mention honors as a senior. The school's career leader in hitting percentage (.384), she ranks in the top 10 in blocks per set (second, 1.29), block assists (sixth, 262) and blocks (ninth, 297) and among the top 20 in kills, kills per set, solo blocks, points and points per set.
 
RECAPPING 2017: Vande Berg was voted the 2017 Ivy League Coach of the Year by her peers after leading the Big Red to its best season in more than a decade. Cornell finished the year with a 12-11 record overall and a mark of 8-6 in the Ivy League, tied with Harvard for third place in the conference standings. The eight Ivy League wins were the most for Cornell since the 2006 season, which was also the last time the Big Red finished in third place in the conference. The team posted a 9-1 record in Newman Arena, the most home wins in a season since 2006, and the best winning percentage since the 2005 squad was a perfect 12-0 in Ithaca. Under Vande Berg's guidance, Cornell lead the Ivy League in digs per set and ranked in the top half of the conference in opponent hitting percentage (second), assists (second), kills (second), blocks (third) and service aces (third).
 
UP NEXT: Saturday's contest concludes the 2018 season.