Women's Hoops Take a Quick Road Trip to Yale; Hosts Columbia on MLK Day

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS 

• The Cornell women’s basketball team opened the 2022-23 conference play by hosting Dartmouth on Sunday, Jan. 1 where it won 61-48.
• The Big Red have a five-game home win streak following a 61-48 win over Dartmouth to open Ivy play.
• Picked sixth in the Ivy League Preseason media poll, the Big Red is coming off a 9-16 season and a sixth-place finish among the Ancient Eight.
• Cornell swept this Ivy League weekly awards on January 3rd for the first time since the 2019-20 season when Shannon Mulroy won both Rookie and Player of the Week. This time around, Emily Pape won Rookie of the Week and Ania McNicholas took home the Player of the Week honor.
• Freshman Emily Pape neared double-double territory in both of her first two collegiate outings (13 pts, 7 rebounds at Colgate; 7 pts, 10 rebounds at FDU). She tallied a remarkable 24-points in the 66-61 win over Mount St. Mary's, the most by an active Cornellian since Shannon Mulroy tallied 27 in her freshman year. Pape earned her first career double-double at Penn with 14 points and 13 rebounds.
• Ania McNicholas is demonstrating true defensive prowess this season currently ranking number one in the nation in steals (56), and second nationally in steals per game at 4.00 as on January 5, 2023. She earned the first triple-double for the Big Red since 1988 in the outing against Clarion (13 pts, 13 rbs, 10 stls)

THE SERIES 
Overall: Yale leads, 56-29
In Newhaven, Conn.: Yale leads, 21-8 (records date back to 1980-81 season when sites were noted)
Current Streak: Yale won four
Last Meeting: 56-40 loss on February 26, 2022
Smith vs. Yale: Yale leads, 20-18
Series Notes:

• Cornell's last win over the Bulldogs dates back to the 2018-19 season when the Big Red completed the season sweep over Yale with a 66-56 victory in Ithaca, N.Y.
• Prior to the four most recent contests, Cornell had a 6-3 stretch over the Bulldogs.
• Yale is the fourth-oldest Ivy opponent for the Big Red, first facing in the 1974-75 season.

A WIN OVER YALE WOULD ... 

• be the first win in the series since March 1, 2019.
• a win would move Coach Smith to one win shy of .500 against the Bulldogs.
• be the 465th win in program history (464-753 in seasons, .381).

LAST TIME OUT: Cornell 48, Princeton 70
GAME STORY I BOX SCORE I GALLERY

• Freshman Emily Pape led the Big Red scoring effort, tallying 15 points and a team-high five rebounds in a 70-48 road loss to Princeton.
• Despite trailing by only nine at halftime, the Princeton offence was too much for the Big Red, as the team shot at an impressive  53.2% clip from the field.
• Mulroy earned her 22nd career game recording double-digit points with 11 points.
• Pape shot over 50% from the field for her third straight game, going 7-11 against the Tigers.
• Pape had the highest points per minute for the Big Red, averaging .500.

Photos by Eldon Lindsay and Patrick Shanahan.