ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell women's soccer team concludes the home portion of its schedule at 1 p.m. Saturday, when it plays its annual Senior Day game against defending Ivy League champion Brown at Berman Field. The Big Red will hold an on-field ceremony to commemorate the final collegiate home games for the six seniors and two fifth-year students on the team —
Victoria Bubrick,
Maddie Hoitink,
Miranda Iannone,
Naomi Jaffe,
Jadyn Matthews,
Mofoluke Obiri,
Aidan Julia Reineman and
Evanthia Spyredes.
Game Information:
Brown at Cornell
SITE: Berman Field — Ithaca, N.Y. (natural surface)
RECORDS: Cornell 3-8-2, 1-3 Ivy League;
Brown 9-3, 4-0 Ivy League
SERIES RECORD: Brown leads, 27-7-4
BROADCAST:
ESPN+
STATS:
CornellBigRed.com
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Cornell game notes
How To Watch:
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As is the case for the rest of the season, the Big Red's game against the Bears 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 is coming off a 1-0 loss at Yale in which it largely frustrated the Bulldogs' offensive advances, but one lapse led to the game-winning strike in the 80th minute. The Big Red would go on to hit the frame of goal with a header in the 87th minute, but could never find an equalizer.
• Playing a sweeper-keeper role on the fast turf at Reese Stadium, senior
Miranda Iannone made three saves in a game played just minutes from her hometown of Hamden, Conn.
• 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 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.
• The win over the Lions was the Big Red's first in Ivy League play since Nov. 5, 2016.
No Sophomore Slump Here:
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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 three 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 six 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 (1-5-2, 1.72, .673, 2 SHO) has been the Big Red's starter in goal for eight of its last nine 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.
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Rob Ferguson was hired as the Big Red's head coach in February 2020. Entering Saturday's game at 3-8-2 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 Brown:
• The defending Ivy League champions jumped into the drivers' seat for another title with a 1-0 victory over previously-undefeated Harvard last Saturday. Brittany Raphino scored the winner in the 75th minute by taking advantage of shaky play on the Crimson back line on a ball served all the way from the Bears' 18-yard box.
• The win was Brown's fifth straight and gives it sole possession of the league lead with three games to play. The victory may also be enough to vault the Bears into the United Soccer Coaches' national poll, which will be released on Tuesday.
• Raphino is tied for the league lead in scoring with 18 points on seven goals and four assists. Ava Seelenfreund — whose pass set up Raphino's strike against Harvard — ranks second on the team with 14 points on six goals and two assists. Zoe Maxwell has a team-high six assists to pair with two goals for 10 points.
• Kayla Thompson (9-3, 1.13, .723, 2 SHO) has played all but 42:45 of the Bears' season in goal. She was the Ivy League's first-team goalkeeper and an all-region first-teamer in 2019 after transferring to Brown from West Virginia.
• Kia McNeill is in her sixth season as the head coach at Brown.
The Series vs. Brown:
• The Bears hold a 27-7-4 advantage in the all-time series, riding an 11-game unbeaten streak into this year's clash.
• Brown defeated Cornell, 2-0, on its last visit to Berman in 2019. Brittany Raphino scored both goals for the Bears, including one just 68 seconds into the game.
• Cornell will be looking to do something against Brown that it hasn't done in 15 years — defeat a defending Ivy League champion. The last time the Big Red knocked off a sitting champion was on Oct. 14, 2006, when it topped Yale, 3-1.
• The last time the Big Red took at least one point from a defending Ivy League champion was in 2012, when it earned a 1-1 draw at Harvard.
• Cornell's last victory against Brown came on Oct. 21, 2008, by a score of 2-0.
Up Next:
• Cornell closes out the season with consecutive road games at Princeton on Saturday, Oct. 30 and at Dartmouth on Saturday, Nov. 6.
