ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell women's soccer team kicks off the 2019 season with the program's first meeting against Iona under the lights at Berman Field.
Game Information
Iona at Cornell
SITE: Berman Field — Ithaca, N.Y. (natural surface)
RECORDS: Cornell 0-0, 0-0 Ivy League;
Iona 0-2, 0-0 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
SERIES RECORD: First meeting
VIDEO: ESPN+
STATS:
CornellBigRed.com
• Cornell game notes (PDF, coming soon)
• Iona game notes (PDF, coming soon)
What's on Tap:
• Cornell kicks off the 2019 season with the program's first meeting against Iona under the lights at Berman Field.
• The season opener will be one of at least 12 games on the Big Red's 15-game schedule to be broadcast on ESPN+, including all Cornell home games and all Ivy League road games.
• ESPN+ is currently only available to fans in the US for $4.99/month or $49.99/year. (https://plus.espn.com/). A similar international platform is the home for fans outside of the U.S., and will feature both live and archived games.
About the Big Red:
• Cornell was 1-13-1 last year, with its victory coming on a
Kaili Gregory golden goal against St. Bonaventure. The Big Red mustered just eight goals throughout the season and just two over the final eight games.
• Senior forward
Kennedy Yearby is Cornell's active scoring leader with four goals and three assists for 11 points. After moving all over the field last season, Yearby scored the tying goal in the 89th minute against Albany and led the team with nine shots on target.
• Senior
Kaili Gregory led the team in scoring last year with five points on two goals and an assist.
• The Big Red lost just three to graduation after last season, including All-Ivy League goalkeeper
Meghan Kennedy '19 (who is rostered as a graduate transfer at Wake Forest this year). Senior
Chrissy Mayer has the most experience of returning goalkeepers with a 0.61 goals against average over seven appearances (four starts).
• Senior central defender
Abby Adams is the squad's lone returning All-Ivy League winner from 2018. Adams was voted onto the All-Ivy second team by opposing coaches, who frequently saw Adams matched up against their most potent attackers.
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.
• The Big Red opened last season with its only victory in a visit to St. Bonaventure.
Naomi Jaffe scored the Big Red's first goal of the year on a sharp angle shot, and
Kaili Gregory ended the game with a perfectly placed golden goal off a free kick in the 100th minute.
• Cornell is now 4-1-1 in its last six season-openers.
• The game against Iona will mark just the second time in the last nine years that the Big Red will open its season at home.
• 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 seven years and now has an overall record as a head coach of 185-137-34.
• Hornibrook will be flanked by a new staff of assistant coaches this season. Rob Ferguson and Kelsey Ferguson join the Big Red as assistant coaches after successful stints building Rochester-based WNY Flash Academy, and Vanessa Romero has come on board as a volunteer assistant coach after a decorated playing career at SUNY Cortland.
A Call To Armbands:
• Seniors
Karli Berry and
Chrissy Mayer, and junior
Naomi Jaffe will serve as the Big Red's tri-captains this season. It will be 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, enters the season with 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.
• Though there are no Canadians among the players, head coach
Dwight Hornibrook is native to the New Brunswick capital of Fredericton.
About Iona:
• The Gaels opened their season with a pair of non-league losses at home. The first was a 2-1 setback against Bryant on Aug. 22 (though Iona doubled the visitors in attempted shots) before a 2-0 shutout loss to Northern Arizona three days later.
• Sophomore forward Faith Preziosi scored Iona's goal against Bryant after a long feed from redshirt sophomore defender Mackenzie Meixner. Preziosi was named to the 2018 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference All-Rookie Team.
• Sophomore goalkeeper Emma Havrilla (0-2, 2.00 goals against average, .733 save percentage) has played all 180 minutes to date after being named to the MAAC All-Rookie Team last year.
• Iona was recently selected 10th of 11 teams in the MAAC preseason coaches' poll after posting three victories in each of its last two seasons.
• Todd Plourde is in his first season as the head coach of the Gaels after serving as an assistant coach at Yale for the last 12 years.
The Series vs. Iona:
• Friday's game marks the first meeting between Cornell and Iona.
• The Big Red enters the season with an all-time record of 14-8-2 against teams currently competing in the MAAC.
Up Next:
• Cornell remains home for a holiday matchup against a different MAAC opponent, Siena, at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 2 at Berman Field. The game will be broadcast on the Ivy League on ESPN.
