ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell women's soccer team will play its first of four Ivy League road games at 2 p.m. Saturday, when it travels to Philadelphia to take on a Penn squad that shared the Ivy League title in 2018.
The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
Game Information:
Cornell at Penn
SITE: Rhodes Field — Philadelphia, Pa. (artificial surface)
RECORDS: Cornell 4-3-1, 0-1 Ivy League;
Penn 5-3-1, 0-1 Ivy League
SERIES RECORD: Penn leads, 18-7-3
BROADCAST:
ESPN+
STATS:
PennAthletics.com
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Cornell game notes
Red Redux:
• Cornell is winless in its last four after suffering a 2-0 loss Saturday against Columbia. The Big Red held a slight edge in time of possession during an evenly-played first half that saw neither squad generate much in the way of scoring chances, but the Lions found the net twice in the second half.
• Senior goalkeeper
Chrissy Mayer made all six of her saves in the second half. She's now started the last three games for Cornell, sporting a 1-2-1 record, 1.18 goals against average, and .808 save percentage.
• Saturday's loss was the Big Red's first at home in five games this season. Cornell had wins against Iona, Siena and St. Bonaventure, plus a tie against Binghamton at Berman Field.
• Cornell started the season with four straight victories for the first time since 2005. The Big Red is 0-3-1 since, with the one draw coming in a 1-1 affair against Binghamton on Sept. 18. Sophomore forward
Evanthia Spyredes had Cornell's goal in the third minute.
About the Big Red
• Cornell has already quadrupled its win total from last year, entering the game against Penn at 4-3-1. The Big Red was 1-13-1 in 2018.
• Sophomore
Jadyn Matthews and freshman
Ashley Durik share the team scoring lead with four points on two goals apiece. Both of Durik's goals came in her collegiate debut on Aug. 30 against Iona. Matthews tallied the other goal against Iona before later netting the winner in a 1-0 triumph at Bucknell.
• Senior forward
Kennedy Yearby remains Cornell's active scoring leader with four goals and four assists for 12 points.
• All three of Cornell's goalkeepers have started games. Freshman
Nicole Shulman has found the most success with a 3-1 record with a 0.62 goals against average, .833 save percentage and one shutout.
• The Big Red continues to deploy freshmen into key roles, including one of the primary goalkeepers (Shulman) and a central defender (
Sydney Waiters). Five freshmen appeared in the field against Columbia — most of any class.
•
Dwight Hornibrook is in his third season as the program's sixth head coach after serving as an assistant coach for five years.
• 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 37 games over the last eight years and now has an overall record as a head coach of 189-140-35.
National Duty
• Sophomore
Jadyn Matthews has international experience, having helped the Jamaica women's national soccer team qualify for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. She appeared twice as a reserve in CONCACAF Women's Caribbean Zone final round games in 2018, though was not ultimately included on the World Cup roster.
• Matthews became the second Cornell women's soccer to play for her senior national team, joining
Rachel Nichols '14 after her tenure with The Philippines.
• Freshman goalkeeper
Nicole Shulman also has experience competing with the U17 and U19 Israeli national teams. Shulman is currently away from Cornell to compete with Israel at the UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship.
A Call To Armbands
• Seniors
Karli Berry and
Chrissy Mayer, and junior
Naomi Jaffe are serving as the Big Red's tri-captains this season. It is the first time any of the trio has donned an armband in their collegiate careers.
• Jaffe is the first non-senior to serve as a captain for Cornell since
Claire MacManus '15 during the 2013 season.
• Cornell, which has six seniors, has more underclassmen on its roster than upperclassmen for a third straight year.
National Appeal
• The Big Red has 14 different states and the District of Columbia represented on the team roster of 28.
• For a third straight year, the most represented state on the Big Red is California – which is called home by five players. The other states with multiple representatives are New Jersey (four), Florida (four), New York (two), Connecticut (two) and Virginia (two), plus there is one each from Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.
About Penn
• The Quakers are coming off a 1-0 loss Saturday at Harvard in their Ivy League opener, having yielded a 72nd-minute goal by Gabby DelPico from about 15 yards after a cross from the right side rolled across in front of a handful of retreating Penn defenders.
• The loss dropped Penn to 5-3-1 overall, with the other setbacks coming against second-ranked Stanford and two-time defending CAA champion Hofstra.
• A 2-1 decision over Temple on Sept. 22 marked the Quakers' last victory, and the other four (vs. Towson, Mount St. Mary's, Bucknell and Loyola) have come via shutout.
• Senior Kitty Qu, a two-time first-team All-Ivy League selection, leads Penn in goal with a 3-3-1 record, 1.29 goals against average and .808 save percentage. She has a program-record 20 clean sheets in her collegiate career.
• Senior forward Emily Sands leads the team in scoring with 12 points on four goals and four assists. Junior midfielder Breukelen Woodard has three goals and one assist for seven points, and junior defender Katharine Larson has a pair of goals.
• Penn shared the Ivy League title with Princeton last season, looking to again become a rare titlist after failing to win its first league game. The Quakers haven't yielded more than one goal in any of their last 28 Ivy League contests.
• Nicole Van Dyke is in her fifth season as the head coach at Penn.
The Series vs. Penn
• The Quakers hold a 18-7-3 advantage in the all-time series after scoring twice in the second half for a 2-0 victory on Sept. 29, 2018 at Berman Field.
• While there have been a total of 12 goals in the teams' last three games in Ithaca, there's been just one in the last three in Philadelphia. That was back on Oct. 4, 2013, with Penn and Cornell playing scoreless draws in both 2015 and 2017.
• Penn enters the game with a shutout streak of 458 minutes, 13 seconds against Cornell at either venue.
• Cornell's last victory against Penn came on Oct. 3, 2014, when it struck three times before the half and hung on for a 3-2 victory at Berman Field.
Up Next
• The Big Red returns home for a visit from Harvard at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12 and its non-league finale against Colgate at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15.
