ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell women's soccer team will look for the program's first-ever victory against regional rival Syracuse when it makes the short trip up to Salt City for a 7 p.m. Thursday contest against the Orange at SU Soccer Stadium.

Game Information:

Cornell at Syracuse
SITE: SU Soccer Stadium — Syracuse, N.Y. (natural surface)
RECORDS: Cornell 1-2-1, 0-0 Ivy League;
                    Syracuse 4-1, 0-0 ACC
SERIES RECORD: Syracuse leads, 9-0-2
BROADCAST: ACC Network Extra
STATS: Cuse.com
•  Cornell game notes (PDF)

How To Watch:

•  Syracuse home games are broadcast through ACC Network Extra, which is the digital platform for ACC Network hosted by the ESPN app. The game will be available through the same ESPN Plus subscription that carries at least 13 of the Big Red's 16 games this season.

About The Big Red:

•  Cornell comes into Thursday's game coming off its first two losses of the season, including a 2-0 setback on Sunday at undefeated Villanova.
•  Now 5-0 with 14 goals scored, the Wildcats used a slick set-piece goal and a penalty-kick strike to earn the victory — meaning the Big Red's tactical defense was never broken down to the point of concession over 90 minutes.
•  With the result still in the balance for most of the second half, Cornell outshot Villanova in the second half, 6-5. Five of freshman Erica Fox's seven saves were needed in the opening 45 minutes.
•  Win, lose and draw — that's how the Big Red returned to intercollegiate competition for the first time in 657 days and kicked off the NCAA head-coaching career of Rob Ferguson.
•  A home stand-ending 5-2 loss to Niagara last Thursday was Cornell's first negative result of the season. The Big Red 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.
•  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.

Jump Right In:

•  For the first time since 2005, Cornell scored multiple goals in each of its first three games — and it was largely 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.
•  Sophomore Ava Laden leads Cornell in scoring with seven points. With two goals and three assists, Laden has directly factored into five of the team's six goals to date.
•  All of Laden's assists have come on goals from freshman Peyton Nichols, whose three goals have been evenly distributed over her first three collegiate games. Already with more goals than anyone on the team in 2019, Nichols' six points to date rank second on the squad.

Welcome Aboard:

•  For a second straight season, a freshman is proving to be the Big Red's primary goalkeeper. Junior Nicole Shulman played the part in 2019, but injuries have kept her sidelined so far this year. That's led to a window of opportunity for freshman Erica Fox (1-2, 1.89 goals against average, .737 save percentage, SHO), who has started three of the team's four games to date.
•  On Aug. 27 against Canisius, 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.
•  Perhaps more notably, Cornell's new-look defense has hit the ground running with even less experience among its headliners. Four different players 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 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 has scored multiple goals in three straight games.

Head Coach Rob Ferguson:

•  Rob Ferguson was hired as the Big Red's head coach in February 2020. Entering Thursday's game at 1-2-1 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.

About Syracuse:

•  The Orange sports a 4-1 record and wins in three straight after a 2-0 decision Sunday at New Hampshire. Both goals came in the final 20 minutes.
•  The game against the Wildcats was the Orange's first on the road this year after a four-game home stand concluded with wins over Eastern Michigan (2-1 on Aug. 29) and Binghamton (1-0 last Thursday).
•  The Orange's only loss this season was against an opponent that has also defeated the Big Red — Niagara. The Purple Eagles rolled to a 4-2 win on Aug. 26 at Syracuse, then topped Cornell by a 5-2 margin a week later.
•  Telly Vunipola leads the team in scoring with six points on two goals and two assists. She's tied for the goal-scoring lead with freshman Pauline Machtens.
•  Grad student Lysianne Proulx (4-1, 1.00, .667, 3 SHO) has started all of Syracuse's games in goal dating back through the 2019 season.
•  The Orange finished up its ACC-only 2020 schedule with a 1-7 mark, highlighted by a 1-0 victory at Miami.

The Series vs. Syracuse:

•  The Big Red will be looking for its first-ever win against its regional rivals in a series that dates back to 1997.
•  Syracuse enters Thursday's game with a 9-0-2 record against Cornell, most recently coming out on the long end of a 3-0 decision on Aug. 31, 2017 in Syracuse.
•  While the Big Red has historically struggled against the Orange, it has an all-time record of 4-3-2 against other women's soccer programs currently competing in the ACC.

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.

Up Next:

•  The final game in the Big Red's season-high stretch of three straight away from home comes at 1 p.m. Sunday with a trip to Iona.
•  Cornell then hits the home stretch of its preparation for Ivy League play next week, hosting Binghamton at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 17 and traveling to perennial America East power Stony Brook at 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 19.