Women's Hoops Hits The Road For First Away Conference Test at Penn and Princeton

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS 

• The Cornell women’s basketball team opened the 2022-23 season against its longest non-Ivy rival at Colgate on Monday, Nov. 7 where it fell 62-48 to the Raiders at Cotterell Court in Hamilton, N.Y.
• 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.
• Theresa Grace Mbanefo and Samantha Will were the lone 2022 grads for the Red, opening up new court opportunities for the returners.
• 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.
• Cornell returns 11 athletes from last year, while adding four new faces.
• 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. 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: Penn leads, 64-21
In Philadelphia, Pa.: Penn leads, 37-9
Current Streak: Penn won 10
Last Meeting: 70-57 loss on February 23, 2022
Smith vs. Dartmouth: Penn leads, 26-12
Series Notes: 

• It has been nearly seven years since Cornell last beat Penn. The victory came on February 26, 2016 in a 51-46 win in Ithaca.
• Of the last 18 meetings, the Big Red have only won twice, splitting the contests in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons.

A WIN OVER PENNSYLVANIA WOULD ... 

• be the first road win in the series since Feb. 6, 2015, and just the 10th all-time in Philadelphia.
• be the first time Cornell opened conference play with two wins since the 2016-17 season, when the Big Red took down Columbia in back-to-back weekends.
• be the 465th win in program history (464-751 in seasons, .382).

LAST TIME OUT: Cornell 61, Dartmouth 48
GAME STORY I BOX SCORE I GALLERY

• Senior captain Ania McNicholas led the Big Red to victory with her team-high 17 points, her eighth total this season and sixth consecutive game in double-digits.
• For the second straight contest, the Big Red never trailed and opened the game with a 9-0 run.
• Senior captain Shannon Mulroy tallied her 21st career game with double-digit scoring.
• Freshman Emily Pape tallied a career-high five steals in the contest.
• Seven of the 10 athletes who saw time scored.

Photos by Eldon Lindsay and Patrick Shanahan.