ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell women's soccer team travels for three of its last four regular-season games, starting with a 1 p.m. Saturday visit to Yale at Reese Stadium.

Game Information:

Cornell at Yale
SITE: Reese Stadium — New Haven, Conn. (artificial surface)
RECORDS: Cornell 3-7-2, 1-2 Ivy League;
                    Yale 1-11, 0-3 Ivy League
SERIES RECORD: Yale leads, 19-18-1
BROADCAST: ESPN+
STATS: YaleBulldogs.com
•  Cornell game notes

How To Watch:

•  As is the case for the rest of the season, the Big Red's game against the Bulldogs is scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN+.
•  ESPN+ is available to fans in the U.S. for $4.99/event, $6.99/month or $69.99/year. (https://plus.espn.com/). A similar international platform at the same price point is available for fans outside of the U.S., featuring both live and archived games.

About The Big Red:

•  Cornell has split its last four games, most recently absorbing a 4-0 loss against nationally-ranked and undefeated Harvard on Saturday at Berman Field. The Big Red was even with the Crimson through 45 minutes and ultimately hit the frame of goal twice, but Harvard used a quick start to the second half to get ahead and improve to 9-0-1.
•  The Big Red's last victory came Oct. 5 against visiting Colgate, when it set season highs for shot attempts (17) and shots on target (nine) in a 2-1 win over the Raiders. The barrage was led by freshman Reinna Gabriel, whose seventh shot of the evening found the net to tie the game in the 62nd minute with her first collegiate goal.
•  The winner came about 10 minutes later on a corner kick by senior Aidan Julia Reineman that created trouble at the near post, where it was inadvertently headed into the net by a defender for an own goal.
•  The Big Red opened conference play with a bang on Sept. 25, snapping the program's 21-game winless skid (0-19-2) in Ivy League play with a 1-0 triumph over Columbia.
•  Senior Evanthia Spyredes scored the deciding goal on a header off free-kick service from junior Kendall Patten in the 83rd minute, and senior goalkeeper Miranda Iannone made four saves for her second collegiate shutout.
•  The win over the Lions was the Big Red's first in Ivy League play since Nov. 5, 2016.

No Sophomore Slump Here:

•  Ava Laden enters the weekend tied for fourth in scoring among Ivy League competitors, entering the contest against Yale with 14 points on five goals and four assists. Her latest helper came via deep cross to set up Reinna Gabriel's goal against Colgate on Oct. 5.
•  Laden was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week on Sept. 20 after scoring three goals in the Big Red's games against Binghamton and Stony Brook. Though a sophomore, by rule Laden is eligible to claim league rookie awards since all Ivy intercollegiate competition for women's soccer was canceled during her freshman season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
•  With at least four games remaining on the schedule, Laden's 14 points are already the most for the Big Red since Elizabeth Crowell '17 had 14 during the 2014 season.

By The Numbers:

•  While Laden has headlined the team's offense of late, it was freshman Peyton Nichols who started the season with three goals in her first three games. Her six points rank second on the team, with senior Evanthia Spyredes ranking third on the strength of four points via goals in two of the Big Red's last five games.
•  Nichols and Laden give Cornell multiple players with three goals in the same season for the first time since 2015, when Elizabeth Crowell '17 and Paige DeLoach '18 had four apiece.
•  Senior Miranda Iannone (1-4-2, 1.81, .667, 2 SHO) has been the Big Red's starter in goal for seven of its last eight games. The lone exception came Oct. 5 against Colgate, when junior Nicole Shulman (1-0, 1.00, .667) returned for the first time since a freshman season in which she emerged as the team's primary goalkeeper.
•  Freshman Erica Fox (1-3, 2.53 goals against average, .636 save percentage, SHO) became the program's first newcomer to record a clean sheet in the team's season opener Katie Thomas '05 did it on Sept. 9, 2001. Fox made two saves to blank Canisius.

Head Coach Rob Ferguson:

•  Rob Ferguson was hired as the Big Red's head coach in February 2020. Entering Saturday's game at 3-7-2 at the helm, Ferguson served as an assistant coach for the Big Red during the 2019 season.
•  With the Sept. 25 win over Columbia, Ferguson became just the second of seven Cornell women's soccer coaches to win his first Ivy League game at the helm. (Berhane Andeberhan was the other in 2000).
•  Ferguson played an integral role get the Big Red's impact then-freshman class acclimated to collegiate competition, leading to the group's strength as juniors this year.
•  Ferguson is flanked by assistant coaches also making their respective debuts behind the Big Red bench. Jackie Firenze is in her second year with the program after four years as an assistant at Binghamton, and Dani Britt comes aboard for her first season at Cornell after most recently coaching at Hartford.

A Call To Armbands:

•  Just as it had when it last competed in 2019, the Big Red is deploying tri-captains in 2021.
•  Fifth year Naomi Jaffe dons the armband once again after serving as one of the program's leadership group in 2019. That marked the first time a non-senior was among the captains for Cornell since Claire MacManus '15 during the 2013 season.
•  Fifth year Maddie Hoitink and senior Miranda Iannone are serving as Big Red captains for the first time.

National Appeal:

•  The Big Red has 14 different states represented on the team roster of 30 women.
•  For a fourth straight season, the most represented state on the Big Red's roster is California – which is called home by six players.
•  The other states with multiple representatives are Florida (four), Connecticut (three), Illinois (three), Colorado (two), New Jersey (two), New York (two) and Virginia (two), plus there is one each from Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
•  Though there are no British among the players, head coach Rob Ferguson is native to Manchester, England.

Quick Starters:

•  Cornell continued its trend of fast starts to seasons after a 2-0 victory over Canisius on Aug. 27 and a 2-2 draw with UAlbany on Aug. 29. It marked the first Cornell has tallied multiple goals in each of its season's first two games since 2005.
•  By topping the Golden Griffins, the Big Red improved to 6-1-1 in its last eight season openers and 23-11-5 in the first game of its season over the program's 40-year history at the varsity level.
•  For the first time since the early stages of the 2015 season, the Big Red scored multiple goals in three straight games.

About Yale:

•  The Bulldogs enter Saturday on a four-game losing streak after a 2-1 setback against Dartmouth on Saturday. Alanna Butcher scored an equalizing goal in the eighth minutes for Yale — just 17 seconds after the Big Green's first goal — to end a scoring drought that dated back to the team's lone victory on Sept. 19 against St. John's.
•  While Yale has the worst winning percentage of Ivy League teams, its Ratings Percentage Index (189) is actually higher than Cornell's (225).
•  Butcher leads the team in scoring with six points on a pair of goals and two assists. Ellie Rappole also has two goals to go with an assist, giving her the second-most points on the team with five. Reina Bonta and Tina Teik have one goal and one assist apiece.
•  Annie Welch (1-6, 3.26, .558, SHO) has been the team's primary goalkeeper across seven starts, but it was Marisa Shorrock (0-1, 2.00, .600) making her collegiate debut with three saves in the loss to Dartmouth.
•  Sarah Martinez is in her first season as the head coach at Yale after spending the 2019 campaign with the Bulldogs as an assistant.

The Series vs. Yale:

•  Cornell is 2-2-1 in its last five meetings with Yale, but the Bulldogs hold a 19-18-1 lead in the all-time series after 1-0 victories in each of the last two games. Three-time All-Ivy League selection Aerial Chavarin scored the winner in both games.
•  It took 36 all-time meetings, but Cornell and Yale finally played to the first draw in their program histories in 2017. Meghan Kennedy '19 made eight saves in the shutout for Cornell.
•  Yale enters Saturday's game with a shutout streak against Cornell of 303 minutes, 44 seconds. Juliana Comer '19 scored the Big Red's last goal against the Bulldogs in the 77th minute of a 2-1 victory on Oct. 15, 2016 at Berman Field.

Up Next:

•  Cornell returns home for its Senior Day game at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 23 in Ithaca against defending Ivy League champion Brown.
•  The Big Red then closes out the regular season with consecutive road games against Princeton (Oct. 30) and Dartmouth (Nov. 6).