ITHACA, N.Y. – The wait is officially over, as the Cornell women's basketball team will open the 2019-20 season at UAlbany on Friday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. at SEFCU Arena in Albany, N.Y., before flying south to take on TCU on Sunday, Nov. 10 at 1 p.m. CT at Ed & Rae Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

GAME INFORMATION

GAME #1: Cornell at UAlbany
GAME TIME: Friday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m.
GAME SITE: SEFCU Arena (Albany, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 6-1
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 48-34, Nov. 12, 2018 (Ithaca, N.Y.)
2019-20 RECORDS: Cornell (0-0, 0-0 Ivy), UAlbany (1-0, 0-0 America East)
Live Video (ESPN3): es.pn/2POjitT
Live Stats: bit.ly/2PSVO6F

GAME #2: Cornell at TCU
GAME TIME: Sunday, Nov. 10 at 1 p.m. CT
GAME SITE: Ed & Rae Schollmaier Arena (Fort Worth, Texas)
SERIES RECORD: TCU leads, 1-0
LAST MEETING: TCU won, 74-52, Jan. 2, 2006 (Fort Worth, Texas)
2019-20 RECORDS: Cornell (0-0, 0-0 Ivy), TCU (1-0, 0-0 Big 12)
Live Video (HFTV): bit.ly/34CbJKR
Live Stats: bit.ly/34vuSxY

*Records prior to Friday's contest.

UALBANY FULL GAME NOTES

TCU GAME NOTES (SUPPLEMENT)

FOR STARTERS:

• The Big Red is 20-28 all-time in season openers.
• The Big Red is seeking its first season opening win since 2016-17 when Cornell beat the University of New Hampshire, 61-56, to open the year.

THE SERIES VS. UAlbany:

• The teams have met seven times.
• The Big Red holds a 6-1 advantage over the Great Danes dating back to the 1999-00 season.
• Cornell picked up its first win of the 2018-19 season against UAlbany last year, downing the Great Danes, 48-34, at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y. 
• Cornell won the first five match-ups between the two schools, before UAlbany picked up its first-ever victory over the Big Red during the 2009-10 campaign.

A WIN OVER UALBANY WOULD:

• Give Cornell a season opening victory for the first time since the 2016-17 season, when the Big Red beat the University of New Hampshire, 61-56.
• Extend the series lead over Albany to 7-1.
• Improve Coach Smith to 4-1 all-time in the series.
• Make Coach Smith 16-19 vs. the America East.
• Mark back-to-back wins for the Big Red over UAlbany.

CORNELL VS. THE AMERICA EAST:

• Cornell improved to 25-29 all-time vs. the current members of the America East Conference last season, posting a 2-2 record. The Big Red beat UAlbany and UMass Lowell, while falling to Binghamton and Stony Brook.
• The Big Red has a winning record vs. Albany (6-1), UMass Lowell (2-0), 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 (2-4) and Vermont (4-6).
• Coach Smith is 15-19 all-time vs. the America East.

SCOUTING UALBANY:

A year after finishing 13-18 overall and 9-7 in the America East, UAlbany was selected to finish third in the America East in 2019-20. The team will be led this season by junior guard Kyara Frames, who was named to the America East Preseason All-Conference Team after earning an All-Conference Third-Team selection in 2018-19. She ranked sixth in the nation in minutes played per game (38.2) last season, averaging 12.8 points per game.
 
Thanks to a 31 point effort from senior Alexi Schecter, the Great Danes opened their season on Tuesday night with an 82-78 overtime win over Columbia. Frames added 17 points, marking her 21st game in double figures, while freshman Morgan Haney (14) and Amanda Kantzy (10) also scored in double figures.

THE SERIES VS. TCU:

• Sunday's matchup between the Big Red and Horned Frogs will be only the second time the two teams have met.
• TCU won the only prior meeting, 74-52, on Jan. 2, 2006 in Fort Worth, Texas.

A WIN OVER TCU WOULD:

• Be the first win for the Big Red over a Big 12 opponent in program history.
• Be the first victory for Cornell over the Horned Frogs in program history.
• Be the first win over a Big 12 school for head Coach Dayna Smith.

CORNELL VS. THE BIG 12:

• Cornell has only squared off against the Big 12 three times in program history, and has fallen in each of those contests.
• The Big Red's most recent Big 12 matchup came during the 2012-13 season when Cornell played Texas, falling 53-40.
• Cornell has also played WVU and TCU once prior. The Big Red will face WVU later this season in Morganton, W.Va. on Dec. 31, 2019.

SCOUTING TCU:

The Horned Frogs are coming off of a 2018-19 season that saw the team make a run to the semifinals of the WNIT before falling to the eventual champion, Arizona, 59-53. TCU recorded a 24-11 overall record while going 10-8 in season play as season ago, marking the most Big 12 wins for the Horned Frogs since 2012. TCU returns eight letter winners from last season's squad, but will have to try and replace graduated seniors Jordan Moore and Amy Okonkwo, who both earned All-Big 12 Honors in 2018-19. Moore earned a spot on both the All-Big 12 First-Team and All-Defensive Team, while Okonkwo earned a second team All-Big 12 selection. As a result, TCU was selected to finish eighth in the Big 12 this season, per the Big 12 Preseason Poll.
 
The Horned Frogs opened the 2019-20 season on a high note on Tuesday night, beating visiting Robert Morris, 66-61. TCU was led by a pair of 20-point performances from Jayde Woods and Lauren Heard. Woods went 10-of-11 from the free throw line, while adding 10 rebounds to start the season with a double-double. Kianna Ray also scored in double figures, notching 12 points.

RECAPPING THE 2018-19 SEASON:

The Big Red finished the season with a 12-14 overall record and a mark of 6-8 in the Ivy League. After winning three of its final four contests, the Big Red finished in a tie for fourth place in the Ivy League and clinched a spot in the Ivy League Tournament for the first time since the tournament's inception three years ago.

WHAT WAS LOST:

The Big Red graduated one senior from the 2018-19 squad in co-captain Samantha Clement, also losing one letter winner as well as one non-letter winner.

WHAT REMAINS:

• Cornell returns all five starters and nine letter winners from a year ago. 
• The team returns its top scorer (16.1 ppg) and rebounder (7.9 rpg) in Laura Bagwell-Katalinich, as well as its second leading scorer (10.8) and rebounder (6.9), Samantha Widmann.
• Widmann and Bagwell-Katalinich will serve as captains for the 2019-20 season.
• Widmann enters her third term as team captain, becoming only the second player in program history (Karen Force '04) to serve as a three-time team captain.
• Bagwell-Katalinich returns to the team after becoming only the 11th player in program history to be named first team All-Ivy League.
• Kate Sramac and Halley Miklos are back and ready to make an even bigger impact this season after starting 19 and 17 starts, respectively, a season ago.

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK:

 The Big Red added four freshmen to the 2019-20 squad.
• The group hails from four different states – California, Virginia, New Jersey, and New York.
• The group consists of one point guard (Shannon Mulroy), two guards (Ania McNicholas, KC Carter), and one forward (Anna Hovis).

IVY PRESEASON RANKINGS:

• The Big Red was picked fifth overall in the 2019-20 Ivy League Preseason Media Poll with 60 voter points.
• This marked vast improvement from last season, when the Big Red were selected eighth in the preseason poll.
• Princeton and Penn tied for first in the poll, each collecting 125 voter points after sharing the regular season Ivy League crown in 2018-19.
• Princeton held a slight advantage in the voting after winning the 2019 Ivy League Tournament,
receiving 10 first place votes as compared to Penn's seven.
• Harvard (95) and Yale (90), were selected to finish third and fourth, respectively.
• Columbia (47), Dartmouth (47), and Brown (23) rounded out the bottom three.

HEAD COACH DAYNA SMITH:

• In her 18th 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 (37th 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 188 career victories.

FRESH PERSPECTIVES:

Coach Smith welcomed two new assistant coaches to the staff for the 2019-20 season - Claire Mattox (Washington College '14) and Joe Rutigliano (Canisius '15).

UP NEXT:

The Big Red will play its home opener against Colgate on Thursday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.