ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell women's soccer team hits the home stretch of the season with five consecutive Ivy League contests, starting with a 1 p.m. Saturday showdown with front-runner and nationally-ranked Harvard at Berman Field.
Game Information:
#18 Harvard at Cornell
SITE: Berman Field — Ithaca, N.Y. (natural surface)
RECORDS: Cornell 3-6-2, 1-1 Ivy League;
Harvard 8-0-1, 2-0 Ivy League
SERIES RECORD: Harvard leads, 26-3-9
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 Crimson 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 enters the gantlet of remaining league games in stride, having won two of its last three games. Most recently, the Big Red erased a second-half deficit against visiting Colgate on Tuesday, scoring twice inside the final 30 minutes for a 2-1 victory.
• The Big Red set season highs for shot attempts (17) and shots on target (nine) against 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.
• 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.
• In its last Ivy League contest, Cornell was defeated by host Penn, 2-0, on Saturday. The Quakers scored once on either side of halftime to run their perfect home record to 6-0.
• The Big Red opened conference play with a bang on Sept. 25, snapping the program's 21-game winless skid (0-19-2) against 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:
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Ava Laden enters the weekend tied for third in scoring among Ivy League competitors, entering the contest against Harvard with 14 points on five goals and four assists. Her latest helped came via deep cross to set up
Reinna Gabriel's goal against Colgate on Tuesday.
• 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 five 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 four 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.
• Tuesday's game against Colgate marked the return of junior
Nicole Shulman (1-0, 1.00, .667), who had not played since a freshman season in which she emerged as the team's primary goalkeeper. Senior
Miranda Iannone (1-3-2, 1.51, .694, 2 SHO) was the Big Red's starter in goal for its six games prior.
• 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 3-6-2 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 Harvard:
• Standing at 8-0-1 and off to its best start to a season since 1996, the Crimson has climbed into the national top 10 in Ratings Percentage Index and 18th in the United Soccer Coaches poll after a 2-0 victory Saturday at Yale.
• Though statistically dominant against the Bulldogs, the Crimson didn't break through until junior Jordan Di Verniero's goal in the 51st minute. Junior Hannah Griffin provided an insurance goal with less than two minutes to play.
• Junior Hannah Gardner (6-0, 0.42, .867, 2 SHO) made three saves to secure the win at Yale. Sophomore Anna Karpenko (2-0-1, 0.93, .692) has also made two starts in seven appearances in goal.
• The reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year in 2019, junior Angela Caloia leads the team in scoring with 14 points on six goals and two assists. Freshman Hannah Bebar leads the team in shots (37) and shots on goal (24), and she's second in team scoring with three goals and four assists for 10 points. Senior Murphy Agnew ranks second on the squad with four goals, but has not played since an early exit during a Sept. 19 contest against Kansas.
• Chris Hamblin is in his sixth season as the head coach at Harvard after spending five years with the program as an assistant coach.
The Series vs. Harvard:
• Harvard holds a commanding 26-3-9 lead in the all-time series with Cornell, including a 3-0 victory in its last visit to Ithaca in 2019. Murphy Agnew scored in the 11th minute, then assisted on both insurance tallies in the second half.
• Cornell's last victory against the Crimson came in 1993.
Up Next:
• The Big Red returns to the road for its final four games of the regular season, starting with a 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 16 trip to Yale.
• Cornell will then hold its Senior Day game at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 23 in Ithaca against defending Ivy League champion Brown.
