ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell women's soccer team makes its home debut on Friday night, hosting Buffalo in a non-league match under the lights at Berman Field.
 

GAME INFORMATION

Buffalo at Cornell
DATE: Friday, Aug. 31, 2018
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Berman Field – Ithaca, N.Y. (natural surface)
RECORDS: Cornell 1-0, Buffalo 1-1
VIDEO: Ivy League on ESPN
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
 

ABOUT THE BIG RED

• Cornell started up its 37th varsity season with a 2-1 overtime victory last Friday at St. Bonaventure, powered by junior center back Kaili Gregory's golden goal on a free kick from 22 yards in the 100th minute.
• Gregory also set up the Big Red's first goal of the season, making a long pass that led to sophomore midfielder Naomi Jaffe's goal from a near impossible angle in the 65th minute to tie the game.
• Senior goalkeeper Meghan Kennedy was credited with three saves to earn the victory, though the Big Red was the dominant squad in terms of possession and territorial advances.
• The victory effectively turned Cornell's page from a 2-9-3 season in 2017, featuring just five goals – one over the final nine games.
• For a full preview of the Big Red's 2018 season, go to https://cornellbigred.com/news/2018/8/23/outlook-more-goals-the-goal-for-womens-soccer.aspx.
 

HEAD COACH DWIGHT HORNIBROOK

• After serving as an assistant coach for five seasons, Dwight Hornibrook was named the program's sixth head coach in advance of the 2017 season.
• Hornibrook had 17 years of head coaching experience with the men's soccer programs at Houghton and SUNY Cortland before joining the Cornell women's soccer team. He has helped the Big Red win 33 games over the last six-plus years and now has an overall record as a head coach of 185-124-33.
• Two-time Cornell captain goalkeeper Tori Christ '14 returns for her second season as an assistant coach, and Eva Francavilla has joined the staff as an assistant coach.
 

BY THE NUMBERS

• Senior midfielder Jessica Ritchie is Cornell's active scoring leader with three goals and three assists for nine points. Junior forward Kennedy Yearby also has three career goals, adding an assist for seven career points. Junior defender Kaili Gregory also has two career goals, both on restarts – the first a penalty kick, and the second on a free kick just outside the box.
• Senior Meghan Kennedy returns as the squad's primary goalkeeper for a third season after leading the Ivy League with 82 saves last year. She enters the game against Buffalo with a 1.27 career goals against average that ranks seventh on the program's all-time list and a .830 career save percentage that ranks eighth.
 

QUICK STARTERS

• Cornell has had great success in the program's 37 season openers, picking up a 21-11-5 mark in the first game of the season after last week's overtime victory at St. Bonaventure.
• The Big Red is now 3-0 when opened its season against the Bonnies. The first was a 5-0 affair on Sept. 10, 1993 in Ithaca, and the second was a final of 2-0 on Sept. 2, 2005 in Olean.
• Cornell now has three overtime victories to start the season in its history. The others were Sept. 4, 1994 at Penn State and Sept. 5, 2014 at Massachusetts.
 

A CALL TO ARMBANDS

• Seniors Meghan Kennedy and Jessica Ritchie are serving as the Big Red's co-captains this season. Both players figure to be among the team's leading contributors this season, with both wearing the armband for the first time in their collegiate careers. Cornell carries just three seniors and has 14 underclasswomen on its roster of 23.
 

NATIONAL APPEAL

• The Big Red has 12 different states and the District of Columbia represented on the team roster of 23.
• The most represented state on the Big Red is California, which is called home by six players. Four hail from New Jersey, three from Florida, and one each from Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.
• Though there are no Canadians among the players, head coach Dwight Hornibrook is native to the New Brunswick capital of Fredericton.
 

ABOUT BUFFALO

• The Bulls opened their season with a 3-1 loss Aug. 20 at St. John's before rebounding with a 3-0 victory last Friday at Youngstown State.
• Sophomore midfielder Kaitlyn Walsh – from nearby Chenango Forks – has scored in each of Buffalo's early-season games to lead the team in scoring with four points. Sophomore forward Gianna Yurchak and junior defender Gurjeena Jandu had the other second-half goals against the Penguins, and senior forward and Colgate transfer Carissima Cutrona has two assists.
• Freshman Emily Kelly has started both games in goal, yielding three goals while making nine saves. Eight of those stops came in her first collegiate shutout against Youngstown State.
• Buffalo was 7-9-3 last year, culminating with a loss to Bowling Green in the MAC Tournament quarterfinals.
• Shawn Burke is in his fifth season as the Bulls' head coach.
 

THE SERIES WITH BUFFALO

• The Big Red evened up the all-time series with the Bulls, 3-3-2, after a 2-1 victory in overtime last year at Buffalo.
• Shelby Wray's first collegiate goal came on a perfect glancing header in the 35th minute, then Kennedy Yearby scored the golden goal off a feed from Jessica Ritchie in the 93rd minute on Sept. 8, 2017.
• Cornell also won the last meeting between the squads at Berman Field, 3-2, behind three second-half goals on Sept. 19, 2014. Elizabeth Crowell '17 scored the final two goals for the Big Red, handing the Bulls their final loss before they went on a 14-game unbeaten streak to win the Mid-American Conference tournament and secure an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
 

UP NEXT

• Cornell continues its busy stretch of four games in 10 days with a holiday trip to Siena for a 3 p.m. kick-off on Monday. The Big Red then returns to Berman Field to host Le Moyne at 7 p.m. Wednesday for a game that will be broadcast on the Ivy League on ESPN.