ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell women's soccer team hits the road for the first time and makes its only non-league trip out of the Empire State when it takes on Villanova at 1 p.m. Sunday in greater Philadelphia.

Game Information:

Cornell at Villanova
SITE: Campolo Field — Villanova, Pa. (artificial surface)
RECORDS: Cornell 1-1-1, 0-0 Ivy League;
                    Villanova 4-0, 0-0 Big East
SERIES RECORD: Villanova leads, 2-1
BROADCAST: FloFC
STATS: Villanova.com
•  Cornell game notes (PDF)

About The Big Red:

•  Win, lose and draw — that's how Cornell has returned to intercollegiate competition for the first time in 657 days and kicked off the NCAA head-coaching career of Rob Ferguson.
•  The Big Red is coming off a rare unfavorable result in which it scored the final two goals of a game. It came Thursday in a home stand-ending 5-2 loss to Niagara, when Cornell conceded five goals inside of 67 minutes before freshman Peyton Nichols and sophomore Ava Laden both scored for a second straight game.
•  Cornell's return to competition from the COVID-19 pandemic — which also marked the athletic department's first on-campus intercollegiate competition since March 8, 2020 — was celebrated in style with a 2-0 victory over Canisius on Friday, Aug. 27.
•  Both goals against the Golden Griffins came in the second half, served from the feet of Nichols and fifth-year student and second-time tri-captain Naomi Jaffe. Freshman Erica Fox made a pair of saves to become the first freshman to record a shutout in a Cornell season debut since Katie Thomas '05 did it on Sept. 9, 2001.
•  Less than 48 hours later, it took fewer than 30 minutes for Cornell to score twice more against UAlbany. Nichols struck again to negate an early Great Danes goal, then Laden gave the Big Red the lead before UAlbany ultimately found an equalizer in the 71st minute.
•  The aforementioned results have Laden leading the team with seven points (more than any Big Red player accumulated in the entire 2019 season) on two goals and three assists, and Nichols' three goals yielding six points.

Jump Right In:

•  For the first time since 2005, Cornell has scored multiple goals in each of its first three games, and it's largely been newcomers providing the new infusion of offense. Fourteen of the team's 17 points to date have come from underclassmen with no previous intercollegiate experience, since the Big Red's 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
•  Perhaps more notably, Cornell's new-look defense has hit the ground running with even less experience among its headliners. Four different players have started among the team's three central defenders over the first two games, and between them they had zero starts in intercollegiate competition entering the season.
•  Through three games, Cornell already has no players that have seen the field for the entirety of the team's minutes. Junior Kendall Patten was the team's only member to see all 200 minutes on the field of the first two games.

Quick Starters:

•  Cornell has 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 Sunday. 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 has scored multiple goals in three straight games.

Head Coach Rob Ferguson:

•  Rob Ferguson is off to a strong start after being hired as the Big Red's head coach in February 2020. Entering Sunday's game at 1-1-1 at the helm, Ferguson served as an assistant coach for the Big Red during the 2019 season.
•  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, the Big Red will deploy tri-captains this season.
•  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 will be 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.

Big Red Rewind:

•  Junior midfielder Ashley Durik is the team's lone returning All-Ivy League representative, having earned honorable mention as a freshman in 2019. She was tied for the team lead in goals with two, though she has yet to see the field this season.
•  The Big Red's four victories in 2019 came in succession to begin the season, marking the program's first 4-0 start since 2005. After defeating the Gaels, Cornell secured three consecutive 1-0 wins over Siena, Bucknell and St. Bonaventure.
•  Senior Evanthia Spyredes led the team in scoring in 2019 with six points on two goals and two assists. With two goals of her own, senior Jadyn Matthews shared the goal-scoring lead with Durik and Spyredes.

About Villanova:

•  Now in his fourth season as the Wildcats' head coach, former Colgate assistant Chris McLain has his team off to hot start at 4-0 with a whopping 12 goals.
•  Senior forward Chloe O'Neill leads the team with 12 points on five goals and two assists. Freshman forward Lauren Belcuore has two goals and an assist for five points, and  senior midfield Reagan Smith has a goal and two assists for four points.
•  Senior Megan McClay (4-0, 0.74, .857, 1 SHO) is in her second year as the team's primary goalkeeper, having transferred in after two years at Oklahoma.
•  Villanova has already surpassed its win total from the 2020-21 season, when it was 3-10-2. Emma Weaver was named to last year's Big East All-Freshman Team.

The Series vs. Villanova:

•  The Big Red opposes the Wildcats for the first time since the turn of the century, renewing a series that's sat idle since Nov. 13, 1999.
•  Cornell trails the series by one game, 1-2, with its one victory coming in just the third year of the program at the varsity level. The Big Red struck twice in extra time for a 3-1 victory on Oct. 7, 1984 in a neutral-site game played at Adelphi.
•  Villanova represents Cornell's lone Big East opponent on the season. The Big Red is 5-15-2 in games against current Big East opponents over its program history.

Up Next:

•  The Big Red continues its travels the next time, though a little closer to home when it makes the quick jaunt to Syracuse for a non-league game at 7 p.m. Thursday.
•  The final game in the season-high stretch of three away from home comes at 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 12, when Cornell takes on Iona.