ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell women's soccer team plays its penultimate regular season road contest on Saturday evening as the Big Red travel to the Nutmeg State to face Yale. First touch between the Ivy League rivals is scheduled for 5 p.m.

MATCH INFORMATION
Cornell at Yale
SITE: Reese Stadium – New Haven, Conn.
RECORDS: Cornell (3-3-5, 0-3-1 Ivy League), Yale (5-4-3, 0-3-1 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Yale leads, 21-17-2
BROADCAST: ESPN+
Stats: YaleBulldogs.com

LAST TIME OUT
Harvard's Jasmine Leshnick, Ólöf Kristinsdóttir, and Audrey Francois all scored second-half goals to aid the visiting Crimson to a 3-1 victory over Cornell at Berman Field last Saturday.

The victory for the Crimson snapped Cornell's program-record 11-match home unbeaten streak, which dated back to last season.

Sophomore midfielder Tanum Nelson thwarted Harvard's attempt at a clean sheet by scoring her first collegiate goal in the 84th minute. Fellow sophomore midfielder Mariana Kessinger earned the primary assist, logging her first collegiate point. Junior midfielder Peyton Nichols also factored on the goal, recording her first point since scoring a game-winning goal against Colgate last year on Oct. 4.

Junior goalkeeper Erica Fox made six saves on the day in the setback for the Big Red, while Anna Karpenko stopped three Big Red shots in the win for Harvard.

THANKS FOR THE HELP!
Thanks to her assist against Columbia last Wednesday, senior midfielder Reagan Pauwels registered her fifth assist, leading the team this season.

With the helper, Pauwels became the 18th player (20th occurrence) in Cornell program history to have at least five assists in a single season.

Pauwels is also the sixth Cornell player this century to have five-plus assists in one season. She became the first to do so since Caroline Growney also registered five helpers in 2015.

With another assist, Pauwels would officially enter the Big Red's top 10 for the most assists in a season, matching Donna Eberhardt (1988), Amy Snow (1991, 1992), Rebecca D'Aleo (1993), Lori Penny (1993), and Dempsey Banks (2013) for the fifth-most assists in a season by one Cornell player.

Two more assists would enable Pauwels to share Cornell's single-season assist record, accomplished previously by Laurie Collier in 1986, Jennifer Smith in 1987, and Jennifer Daly and Amy Finkelstein in 1994.

STUCK IN THE MIDDLE
After setting the single-season record for ties last season, Cornell matched that mark following its draw with Columbia on Wednesday afternoon.

Cornell has played to five draws this season, matching last season's mark during its 4-7-5 campaign. Four of Cornell's five ties have come over its previous seven contests, as the program has four-plus ties in one season for the fourth time in program history.

The Big Red's five draws are the most by any Ivy League program this season and are currently tied for the 15th-most among Division I programs entering Thursday's matches.

TEAM EFFORT
Thanks to Sydney Malaga's game-winning goal against Colgate last Tuesday, Cornell has five players with at least two goals scored this season. It is the most multi-goal scorers for the Big Red in a season since 2013, when it also had five players with two-plus goals.

Should another Cornell player register a second goal this season, it would be the first time the Big Red has had six multi-goal scorers since 1999 (6).

There have been eight prior instances of Cornell registering at least six players with multiple goals: 1986, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1999.

ANCIENT EIGHT'S SUCCESS
Through matches completed on Tuesday, the Ivy League has excelled on the pitch, registering a combined 51-22-22 record, leading to a cumulative .653 win percentage, pacing all 31 Division I conferences sponsoring women's soccer.

Prior to Wednesday's matches, the Ivy League boasted a 24-point advantage over the SEC (98-49-43 — .629) and a 26-point lead over the Big Ten (99-51-40 — .626).

Entering this weekend's Ivy League slate, seven Ancient Eight members have at least a .500 win percentage, while five programs boast win percentages of at least .700.

IVY LEAGUE PRESEASON POLL
Cornell was picked to finish sixth in the 2023 Ivy League women's soccer preseason poll, the conference office announced on Aug. 24.

Brown received 12 of 16 possible first-place votes, finishing with an Ivy League-best 123 points. Harvard earned three first-place votes, placing second with 113 points. Yale registered the final last-place vote, garnering 88 points to assume third place.

Princeton (78 points) and Columbia (74 points) were picked fourth and fifth, respectively, while Cornell (35 points), Dartmouth (33 points), and Penn (32 points) rounded out the poll.

2023 LEADERSHIP TEAM
Cornell has six student-athletes on its leadership team for the 2023 campaign, rotating captains each game.

Two sophomore, junior, and senior members were named to this year's leadership team. Those named to the team were seniors Jackie Lasseter and Ava Laden, juniors Maddie Leroy and Sydney Malaga, and sophomores Abigail Bishara and Izzy Scott.

ACROSS THE NATION
Cornell has no geographical recruiting base, as the Big Red has 16 states represented on this year's roster.

California has the most representatives on this year's roster, as five student-athletes reside in the Golden State. New York has the second-highest total with four. Colorado and Texas are right behind with three apiece. Illinois, Maryland, and New Jersey each have two representatives.

Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington are represented once on this year's roster.

SCOUTING YALE
Yale enters Saturday's contest with a 5-4-3 overall record and a 0-3-1 mark in Ivy League action. The Bulldogs are currently on a three-match winless streak, having tied to Penn (Sept. 30) and losing to Brown (Oct. 4) and Princeton (Oct. 7).

Ellie Rappole leads Yale's offense with her team-leading five goals and 12 points. Rappole and Annika Bryant are tied for the lead in assists with two apiece. Joining Rappole in scoring multiple goals this season includes Anita Thorvaldsdottir (four goals) and a trio of players with two goals in Ashley Kirschner, Ellery Winkler, and Nana Yang.

Marisa Shorrock has started in all 10 appearances between the pipes for Yale, posting a 4-3-3 record with a 1.35 goals-against average and a .776 save percentage.

YALE'S LAST TIME OUT
Last Saturday, Yale fell to Princeton, 3-1, at Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium, as the Ivy League points leader, Pietra Tordin, recorded a three-point day for the victorious Tigers.

Tordin assisted the opening goal by Drew Coomans in the 27th minute before netting the eventual game-winning marker in the 54th minute. Yale's Ellery Winkler scored her second goal of the season, trimming Princeton's lead to 2-1 in the 65th minute. Lexi Hiltunen tacked on an insurance marker for Princeton in the 87th minute.

First-year goalkeeper Kyla Holmes made her first Ivy League start for the Bulldogs, stopping eight Princeton shots in the setback.

Princeton held the advantage in shot attempts, 19-15, shots on goal, 11-8, and doubled Yale in corner kicks, 6-3.

41 YEARS, 256 MILES, 40 MEETINGS
Yale owns a 21-17-2 advantage in the series against Cornell since the first meeting between the two programs in 1982.

The last 13 meetings between the two Ivy League rivals have been decided by one goal or less. The last time a contest featuring Cornell and Yale was determined by at least two goals was when the Bulldogs prevailed, 3-1, on Oct. 18, 2008. Cornell has not won by multiple goals over Yale since winning 3-1 exactly 16 years to the date (Oct. 14, 2006).

Cornell is seeking its first victory over Yale since posting a 2-1 win over the Bulldogs at Berman Field on Oct. 15, 2016. The Big Red's last win at Reese Stadium was the prior year, on Oct. 17, 2015, in a 1-0 triumph thanks to a game-winning goal by Elizabeth Crowell in the 27th minute and a three-save clean sheet by Kelsey Tierney.