ITHACA, N.Y. – After a 53-34 wire-to-wire victory over Colgate in its season opener on Wednesday, the Cornell women's basketball team will head south to open a three-game road stretch against Wake Forest on Friday at 4 p.m. at the LJVM Coliseum in Winston-Salem, N.C. A contest against ETSU will follow on Sunday at 2 p.m. at Brooks Gym in Johnson City, Tenn.
Game Information:
Cornell at Wake Forest
DATE/TIME: Friday, Nov. 12, 2021 at 4 p.m.
SITE: LJVM Coliseum – Winston-Salem, N.C.
RECORDS: Cornell 1-0, 0-0 Ivy League / Wake Forest 1-0, 0-0 ACC
BROADCAST: ACCNX (es.pn/3F2K73F)
STATS: godeacs.com (bit.ly/303ZKsx)
GAME NOTES
Cornell at East Tennessee State
DATE/TIME: Sunday, Nov. 14, 2021 at 2 p.m.
SITE: Brooks Gym – Johnson City, Tenn.
RECORDS: Cornell 1-0, 0-0 Ivy League / ETSU 0-1, 0-0 Southern Conference
BROADCAST: ESPN+ (es.pn/3H9edo7)
STATS: etsubucs.com (bit.ly/3qnpmvF)
GAME NOTES
*Records prior to Friday's contests.
What's on Tap:
• After winning its season opener on Wednesday against Colgate, the Cornell women's basketball team heads south to open a three-game road stretch against Wake Forest on Friday at 4 p.m. at the LJVM Coliseum in Winston-Salem, N.C. and ETSU on Sunday at 2 p.m. at Brooks Gym in Johnson City, Tenn.
• Friday's match-up against Wake Forest will be one of three contests this season for the Big Red against a 2020-21 NCAA Tournament team (Syracuse, Washington State).
• Friday's contest is also a homecoming for longtime assistant coach Val Klopfer, who played her collegiate career for the Demon Deacons from 1998-2002.
• Dayna Smith, the Rebecca Quinn Morgan '60 Head Coach of Women's Basketball, sits at 199 career victories, just one away from the 200-win milestone.
How to Watch:
• The game against Wake Forest will be broadcast through the ACC Network Extra, which is the digital platform for the ACC Network hosted by the ESPN app. The platform is subscription-based, but can be accessed by logging in with your cable provider, provided that your cable package includes the ACC Network. Several popular streaming mediums, such as YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, and others lend access to the ACC Network Extra.
• The game against ETSU will be broadcast on ESPN+, along with all of Cornell's home contests and its entire slate of Ivy League games over the course of the season. ESPN+ is available to fans in the U.S. for $4.99/event, $6.99/month, or $69.99/year (http://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.
Last Time Out:
• It was wild 24 hours for the Cornell women's basketball team, who had its season opener against Colgate postponed on Tuesday to come back 24 hours later and play the rescheduled contest on Wednesday.
• Although it was a day later than what was expected, it didn't make a difference for Cornell, who led from start to finish in the team's 53-34 victory over the Raiders.
• With the victory, Cornell has won its season opener in back-to-back season and improves to 1-0 on the year.
• Senior forward Theresa Grace Mbanefo made up for lost time in her senior debut, netting a career-high 15 points and grabbing a career-best 14 rebounds for the second double-double of her career. As if that wasn't enough, Mbanefo added a game-high three blocks and tallied three assists.
• She paced four Cornell student-athletes that finished the contest in double-figures, including Olivia Snyder (12), Shannon Mulroy (10), and Samantha Will (10). Snyder also pulled down seven rebounds in her Cornell debut.
• The Big Red never gave Colgate a chance in the contest, scoring the first seven points of the game and going on to outscore the Raiders, 17-4, in the first quarter. It helped Cornell build a lead that it would never relinquish, leading 29-14 at the half. The Big Red led by as many as 23 points in the fourth quarter.
The Series vs. Wake Forest:
• Friday's contest between the Big Red and Wake Forest will be the first meeting between the two schools.
Cornell vs. the ACC:
• Cornell is 4-24 all-time against members of the Atlantic Coastal Conference.
• All four wins have come against Syracuse (4-16), while the Big Red has also squared off against Boston College (0-1), Georgia Tech (0-2), Miami (0-2), Pittsburgh (0-2), and Virginia Tech (0-1).
• Friday's contest will be the first time since the 2017-18 season that Cornell has gone up against an ACC school, with its most recent contest being a 51-39 loss to Pittsburgh on Nov. 13, 2017 in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Scouting Wake Forest:
• Wake Forest opened up its season on Tuesday with a win at Mercer, defeating the Bears, 68-55.
• Senior forward Christina Morra paced the Demon Deacons, tallying a career-high 19 points and adding a team-high seven boards.
• Jewel Spear (10.9 ppg), along with Morra (10.4 ppg), are the team's top-returning scorers from a season ago, both averaging double-figures in 2020-21.
• Olivia Summiel, who also pulled down a team-high seven rebounds in Wake Forest's victory over Mercer, is the team's top-returning rebounder from 2020-21 at 4.7 per game.
• The Demon Deacons finished 10th in the ACC in 2020-21 with a 12-13 overall and 8-10 conference record. The team qualified for the NCAA Tournament, falling in the first round to Oklahoma State, 84-61.
A Win Over Wake Forest Would:
• Be the Big Red's first victory over Wake Forest in program history.
• Be Cornell's first win over an ACC school since the 2003-04 campaign, when head coach
Dayna Smith guided the Big Red to a 82-62 victory over Syracuse on Dec. 20, 2003 in Ithaca, N.Y.
The Klopfer Connection:
• Friday's contest at Wake Forest will be a homecoming for longtime assistant coach
Val Klopfer, who was a four-year letter winner for the Demon Deacons from 1998-2002.
• She finished her career at Wake Forest ranked seventh all-time in school history in career 3-pointers made.
• To this day, Klopfer ranks seventh all-time in school history in career assist-to-turnover ratio (1.17) and tenth in assist-to-turnover ratio for a single season (1.55, 2000-01).
The Series vs. ETSU:
• Sunday's contest between Cornell and East Tennessee State will be only the third time the two teams have met.
• The first meeting came 27 years ago during the 1992-93 season, in what ended in a 76-65 win over the Bucs in a neutral site game on Jan. 4, 1993 in Greensboro, N.C.
• Cornell improved its all-time record over the Bucs to 2-0 the last time the two teams' played in 2019-20 in a contest that saw the Big Red wear down ETSU for a 71-43 win on Jan. 4, 2020 in Newman Arena.
•
Shannon Mulroy netted eight points in the contest for the Big Red, adding a pair of rebounds and a pair of assists.
Cornell vs. The Southern Conference:
• Cornell has only squared off against a Southern Conference opponent five times in program history, with the most recent also coming against ETSU during the 2019-20 season. The Big Red posted a convincing 71-43 victory over the Bucs on Jan. 4, 2020 in Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.
• The Big Red is 2-3 all-time against the Southern Conference.
• The Big Red holds a 2-0 series advantage over East Tennessee State.
• Cornell has a 0-1 record against UNC Greensboro, Samford, and UT Chattanooga.
• Head Coach
Dayna Smith is 1-1 against the Southern Conference.
Scouting ETSU:
• ETSU opened the 2021-22 season against Cleveland State on Tuesday, falling by a score of 81-54 in Cleveland, Ohio.
• The Bucs were led in scoring by Damiah Griffin (13 points) and Jaila Roberts (11 points) in the season opener against Cleveland State, with Roberts filling the stat sheet with seven rebounds and four assists.
• ETSU returns its top two scorers from a season ago in Carly Hooks (9.9 ppg) and Jakhyia Davis (9.5 ppg). Davis was also the team's top rebounder in 2020-21, averaging 6.7 per game.
• The Bucs have new leadership this season, being led by first-year head coach, Scott Carter, who became the ninth head coach in ETSU women's basketball history in March of 2021.
A Win Over ETSU Would:
• Improve Cornell to 3-0 all-time against East Tennessee State.
• Be Cornell's third-straight victory over a Southern Conference opponent.
• Make head coach
Dayna Smith 2-1 over Southern Conference opponents.
A Look Back in Time:
• The last time the Big Red was in action in 2019-20, Cornell finished the season with a 10-16 overall record and a 3-11 mark in conference play, finishing seventh in the Ivy League.
• Cornell notched a historical win over Harvard that season, defeating the Crimson, 55-47, at Lavietes Pavilion on Feb. 29, 2020 for the team's first win over Harvard in Cambridge, Mass. in program history.
Theresa Grace Mbanefo posted her first-career double-double in the contest with 11 points and 12 rebounds.
• The Big Red will look to get back to the Ivy League Tournament this year for the first time since the 2018-19 season, when the team qualified for its first conference tournament after its creation in 2016-17.
Starting from (Almost) Scratch:
• The Cornell women's basketball team will have a new look this season, returning only 27 percent of its minutes, 27 percent of its scoring, and 22 percent of its rebounding from the 2019-20 season.
• Of the 14-player roster, eight will suit up for the Big Red for the first time in the 2021-22 campaign.
Oh Captain, My Captain (s):
• Mulroy returns as the team's top scorer from 2019-20 when she averaged 8.3 points, 2.5 assists, and 2.1 rebounds per game. She appeared in all 26 games and made 23 starts while averaging 25.2 minutes of playing time per game, the most among all returners. She led the Big Red in 3-point makes (35) and shooting percentage from behind the arc (33.0) in her rookie season. She also ranked second on the team in assists and free throw percentage (.750) in 2019-20.
• A guard with a calming presence on the floor, Will came into her own at the end of the 2019-20 season when she scored double-digits in back-to-back games for the first time of her career against Yale on Feb. 21, 2020 and Brown on Feb. 22, 2020.
• Mbanefo is one of two forwards that returns from the 2019-20 roster. She played in all 26 games as a sophomore, making four starts and averaging 18.2 minutes per contest. She led Cornell in blocks (18) and ranked third on the team in rebounding, averaging 5.5 points and 4.9 rebounds per contest.
The Lay of the Land:
• In addition to Mbanefo, Mulroy, and Will, junior guard
Ania McNicholas, junior guard
KC Carter, and junior forward
Anna Hovis return invaluable collegiate experience to a roster that is laden with newcomers.
• Junior transfer
Olivia Snyder will add an offensive mentality and knack for scoring the basketball to the Big Red roster.
Ivy Preseason Rankings:
• The Big Red was picked sixth overall in the 2021-22 Ivy League Preseason Media Poll with 41 voter points.
• The 2019-20 Ivy League Regular Season Champion Princeton was once again picked as the favorite to win the league this year, collecting 12 of a possible 16 first place votes and 122 points.
• Penn, who returns the 2019-20 Ivy League Rookie of the Year and first team All-Ivy selection Kayla Padilla, was chosen second with three first place votes and 108 points.
• The race for third, fourth, and fifth was close from there, with Columbia being picked third (87 points), Yale being chosen fourth (82 points), and Harvard's single first place vote helping the Crimson come in fifth (81 points).
• Dartmouth (29 points) and Brown (27 points) rounded out the poll in seventh and eighth, respectively.\
•
Dayna Smith, The Rebecca Quinn Morgan '60 Head Coach of Women's Basketball, is in her 20th season at the helm of the program.
• The winningest coach in Cornell women's basketball history and the fifth-winningest in Ivy League history, she is the second-longest tenured active women's basketball coach in the conference (Harvard's Kathy Delaney-Smith, 40 seasons).
• She is also fourth all-time in years served as a head coach in the Ivy League.
• She sits at 199 career victories, just one away from the 200-win mark.
Up Next:
• The Cornell women's basketball team will close-out its three-game road stretch when it heads to nearby Binghamton for a 7 p.m. tip on Wednesday, Nov. 17 in Vestal, N.Y.
