ITHACA, N.Y. – After an extensive wait, Ivy League women's basketball is finally just days from its return, as the Cornell women's basketball team will kick off conference play at Dartmouth on Sunday, Jan. 2 at 2 p.m. at Leede Arena in Hanover, N.H.

Game Information:

Cornell at Dartmouth
DATE/TIME: Sunday, Jan. 2, 2022 at 2 p.m.
SITE: Leede Arena – Hanover, N.H.
RECORDS: Cornell 5-6, 0-0 Ivy League / Dartmouth 1-11, 0-0 Ivy League
BROADCAST: ESPN+ (es.pn/3FLyPBE)
AUDIO: dartmouthsports.com (bit.ly/3JAd7TM)
STATS: dartmouthsports.com (bit.ly/3eCjcRl)
GAME NOTES

What's on Tap:

•   For the first time since the 2019-20 season, Ivy League women's basketball is just two days away from its official return, as the Cornell women's basketball team will dive into conference play at Dartmouth on Sunday, Jan. 2 at 2 p.m. at Leede Arena in Hanover, N.H.
•   The 2021-22 campaign marks the first season that conference play will be over the course of 10 weeks rather than the traditional eight-week slate.
•   Under the new structure, there will be six one-opponent weekends and three of the league's signature back-to-back weekends during conference play. Each team will also have a contest on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. League play will conclude with a single-game weekend against each institution's travel partner.
•   After a convincing 82-48 victory over Lock Haven on Dec. 29, the Big Red enters Ivy League action having posted a 5-6 record in nonconference play.

How to Watch:

•   The game against Dartmouth will be broadcast on ESPN+, along with Cornell's entire slate of Ivy League games for the remainder 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:

•   In its nonconference finale against Lock Haven on Wednesday, Dec. 29, the Big Red didn't skip a beat despite having been off for three weeks due to final exams, three-straight game cancelations due to COVID-19 concerns, and the holidays, as Cornell rolled past the Bald Eagles, 82-48, at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.
•   The victory was a total team effort, as three Cornell scorers notched double figures and 10 Big Red players put points on the board.
•   Ania McNicholas and Olivia Snyder paced the Big Red offense with 14 points apiece, while Shannon Mulroy scored 13. All-three juniors contributed in multiple facets of the game.
•   McNicholas filled the stat sheet, adding seven rebounds, a career-high seven assists, and three steals, marking the sixth game this season that the junior has collected a trio of steals.
•   Snyder made a big impact on the boards, notching a team-high eight rebounds and notching three steals of her own.
•   Mulroy dished out seven assists, with her seven helpers marking a season-high and matching her career-high, as well as sharing the game-high with teammate McNicholas.
•  The duo of Mulroy and McNicholas combined for 14 of the Big Red's season-high 24 assists in the contest, more than Lock Haven posted for the entire game with 13.
•   Led by freshman Summer Parker-Hall's career-high nine points, the Big Red reserves proved that strength comes in numbers, as the Cornell bench outscored Lock Haven's bench, 27-6.
•   Cornell finished the contest against Lock Haven having shot a season-best .541 from the floor (33-of-61), including .500 from long range (11-of-22). Eight different Cornell student-athletes knocked down at least one trey, led by three from Shannon Mulroy, who went 3-of-4 from behind the arc.

The Series vs. Dartmouth:

•   Dartmouth holds a 61-22 advantage over Cornell dating back to 1976-77, including a 36-5 record in Hanover, N.H.
•   Dartmouth might hold a significant advantage over the Big Red in the all-time series, but Cornell is neck-and-neck with the Big Green over the past 26 meetings, with both teams winning 13 games in that span.
•   The Big Red had a five-game winning streak, the longest by Cornell in the history of the series, ended in 2014-15 at Leede Arena, and the teams split the home-and-home series from 2015-16 to 2018-19.
•   Dartmouth did something that the Big Green hadn't done since the 2009-10 season during the 2019-20 campaign, however, sweeping Cornell for the first time in 10 seasons.
•   The Big Green defeated Cornell, 67-65, on Feb. 12, 2020 in Ithaca, N.Y. and, most recently, 82-79, in an overtime heartbreaker for the Big Red on Feb. 28, 2020 in Hanover, N.H.

Scouting Dartmouth:

•   Dartmouth enters Ivy League play holding an 1-11 record, with its only win coming over Texas State by a score of 62-39 on Dec. 16, 2021 in San Marcos, Texas.
•   The victory marked first-year Dartmouth head coach Adrienne Shibles' first Division I victory. Shibles was named the fifth head coach in Dartmouth women's basketball history in May of 2021 after a very successful 13-year stint at the helm of the Division III Bowdoin program.
•   Shibles led Bowdoin to a 281-67 record and 11 NCAA Tournament appearances, including eight trips to the Sweet Sixteen and two to the Final Four, during her tenure.
•   Dartmouth has defended the perimeter well so far this season, ranking third in the conference in 3-point field goal percentage defense (0.279).
•   Led by sophomore Mia Curtis' 7.3 points per game, the Big Green has five players averaging over five points per contest, including sophomore Carrington Washburn (6.8), sophomore Mekkena Boyd (6.3), freshman Grace Niekelski (5.5), and senior Katie Douglas (5.5).
•  Freshman Doreen Ariik leads the team in rebounds (4.9 rpg) and blocks (0.7 bpg), sitting ninth in the Ivy League in blocks per game.
•   Senior Katie Douglas ranks among the top-10 of the conference in 3-point field goals per game, sitting ninth in the Ivy League at 1.4 per game.

A Win Over Dartmouth Would:

•   Even Cornell's record to 6-6 on the season and give the Big Red a 1-0 start to Ivy League play.
•   Make Cornell 8-2 in its last 10 conference openers.
•   Improve head coach Dayna Smith's teams to 12-7 in its Ivy League opener.

Ivy League Preseason Predictions:

•   The Big Red was predicted to finish sixth overall in the conference this season, per the 2021-22 Ivy League Preseason Media Poll. Cornell received a total of 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.

Big Red Blurbs:

•   Cornell's effort on the offensive glass so far this season has been relentless, as the Big Red leads the Ivy League at 13.8 offensive boards per game. Theresa Grace Mbanefo (40) and Olivia Snyder (31) have combined for nearly half of Cornell's 152 offensive rebounds, helping the Big Red hold the advantage in the category in eight of the 11 games it has played so far this season. Mbanefo's 4.0 offensive rebounds per game ranks 21st nationally.
•   The Big Red has also done a great job of keeping its opponents off the boards, ranking second in the Ivy League as a team in rebounding defense (33.9 rebounds per game).
•   Mbanefo (8.9) and Snyder (8.1) both rank among the top-five of the Ivy League in rebounds per game, sitting third and fourth, respectively.
•   Mbanefo's four double-doubles this season is the second-most in the Ivy League and ranks 47th in all of Division I.
•   Mbanefo has also been a blocking machine, as her 1.9 blocks per game ranks third in the conference and 46th nationally. Olivia Snyder sits among the top-10 of the Ivy League in blocks as well, as her 0.7 blocks per game ranks ninth.
•   Mbanefo has scored in double figures in eight of 10 games so far this season and is currently shooting .500 from the floor, a percentage which sits second in the Ivy League.
•   Shannon Mulroy has done a great job of distributing the basketball so far this season, leading Cornell and sitting third in the conference in assists per game (3.2). Her assist to turnover ratio of 1.3 also ranks third in the Ivy League.
•   Ania McNicholas' pesky defense has wreaked havoc on her opponents, as the junior's 2.8 steals per game sits second and the Ivy League and ranks 29th in all of Division I. McNicholas has collected at least three steals in half of Cornell's contests so far this season. Her 2.4 assists per game sits seventh in the conference.

The Big 2-0-0:

•   Dayna Smith, The Rebecca Quinn Morgan '60 Head Coach of Women's Basketball, who is in her 20th year at the helm of the program, notched her 200th career victory on Nov. 17 with the Big Red's 67-57 victory over Binghamton in Vestal, N.Y.
•   With her 200th victory, Smith became only the sixth coach in Ivy League women's basketball history to amass 200 career victories at an Ivy school.
•   The winningest coach in Cornell women's basketball history and the sixth-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.
•   Smith's record sits at 203-299 for her career.

Team Leaders:

•   Points – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 12.2 points per game
•   Field Goals Made – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 5.3 per game
•   Field Goal Percentage – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, .500
•   3-point Field Goals Made – KC Carter, 1.2 per game
•   3-point Field Goal Percentage – KC Carter, .382
•   Free Throw Percentage – Olivia Snyder, .760 (19-of-25)
•   Rebounding – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 8.9 rebounds per game
•   Assists – Shannon Mulroy, 3.2 assists per game
•   Assist-to-Turnover Ratio – Shannon Mulroy, 1.3
•   Blocks – Theresa Grace Mbanefo, 1.9 blocks per game
•   Steals – Ania McNicholas, 2.8 steals per game
•   Minutes – Olivia Snyder, 31.4 minutes per game

A Look Back in Time:

•   The last season the Big Red was in action in 2019-20, Cornell finished the year with a 10-16 overall record and a 3-11 mark in conference play, finishing seventh in the Ivy League.
•   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 has 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 suit up for the Big Red for the first time in the 2021-22 campaign.

Oh Captain, My Captain (s):

•   Senior forward Theresa Grace Mbanefo, senior guard Samantha Will, and junior guard Shannon Mulroy have been elected as tri-captains of the team for the 2021-22 season.
•   Mulroy is the team's top returning 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 adds an offensive mentality and knack for scoring the basketball to the Big Red roster.
•   Sophomore guards Mia Beam, Val Garcia-Martinez, and Kaya Ingram, as well as freshmen Jada Davis, Lexi Green, Arianna Linoxilakis, and Summer Parker-Hall all take the floor for Cornell for the first time this season.

Up Next:

•   The Cornell women's basketball team will play its first back-to-back weekend of the Ivy slate when it hosts Penn on Friday, Jan. 7 at 6 p.m. and Princeton on Saturday, Jan. 8 at 4 p.m. at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.