ITHACA, N.Y. -- The 2024 home schedule ends this weekend for Cornell women's lacrosse as it hosts the No. 10 Yale Bulldogs on senior day from Schoellkopf Field in game two of a Big Red lacrosse doubleheader. 

GAME INFO:
SITE: Schoellkopf Field - Ithaca, N.Y.
DATE and TIME: Saturday, April 20, at 3:30 p.m.
RECORDS: Cornell (7-6, 2-3 Ivy League), Yale (11-1, 5-0 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 23-21
BROADCAST: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: cornellbigred.com

MATCHUP HISTORY
- Saturday's contest with the 45th all-time meeting between Cornell and Yale. 
- Cornell has had its Ivy League rivals number in recent memory with 13 victories over the last 15. Yale has taken two out of three, including the most recent meeting in Ithaca in 2022.
- The Big Red offense has scored the first goal in seven out of the last ten against the Bulldogs. Six have turned into scoring blitzes of three goals or more.
- Cornell has excelled when the draw control battle has come down to the wire. The Big Red has taken seven straight when the final head-to-head margin is three or less. Cornell is 1-2 in the other three, with the win coming after losing the battle by a 14-9 mark in 2017.

A WIN OVER YALE WOULD
- Give Cornell an 8-6 record through 14 contests for the first time since 2018 and guarantee a winning record for the first time since going 13-6 in 2017.
- Snap the Big Red's season-long three-game losing streak and a five-game skid against ranked opponents. 
- Be Jenny Graap's 256th career win and her 235th win as head coach of the Big Red.
- Push Cornell to its 377th win in program history (376-331-4 in 52 seasons, .532).

LAST TIME OUT: QUAKER'S SECOND-QUARTER RUN DOOMS BIG RED  
Cornell held a 3-2 lead after the opening quarter before being outscored 8-2 over the second and third to fall 11-7 to No. 12 Penn last Saturday from Schoellkopf Field. The Big Red was held to less than 10 goals for the third consecutive game and turned the ball over 20 times in the defeat. 

Kylie Gelabert had a career day for the Big Red, finishing with four goals and two assists. The junior fell a point shy of her career-high of seven (two goals, five assists) set earlier this season against Binghamton and recorded five of Cornell's 15 shots on goal. Caitlin Slaminko was the other multi-goal performer with two, tying her career high of 17 from last season. Josie Vogel also extended her point streak to 26 games with two assists. Career best also carried over to Bridget Babcock and Mackenzie Clark. Babcock recorded four caused turnovers alongside four ground balls. Clark, making her first start, had a career-best 10 stops.

Slaminko got the Big Red on the board with nearly five minutes off a feed from Gelabert in traffic to knot things at one. The goal provided an early spark for Cornell, with Donahoe and Gelabert finding the back of the net 41 seconds apart to jump ahead 3-1 before Penn tallied its second to put the game at 3-2 after 15 minutes. Momentum carried over in the second for the Quakers with a Niki Miles free position goal to tie the score at three. Gelabert countered with her second on a free position to retake a 4-3 lead with 9:23 to go. The momentum swung in Penn's favor with a 3-0 run to cap the quarter, taking a 6-4 lead into the half. Cornell's offense struggled to gain traction after Gelabert's goal, mustering three shots the rest of the quarter. 

Penn continued to lay the hammer down with the first two goals of the half to extend its lead to 8-4. Cornell snapped its goalless streak with 5:30 to go on a pass from Babcock to a trailing Gelabert to secure her first hat trick of the season and pull the Big Red within three. The Quakers shook off the goal with two more to take a 10-5 lead into the fourth. Penn put one more on the board with eight minutes left before Cornell chipped away with Gelabert's fourth and Slaminko's second of the day scored11 seconds apart to dart within four. But that was as close as the home team got in the end, as Cornell's losing streak jumped to three. 

INSIDE THE IVY: YALE
- Yale comes into Saturday at 11-1 and 5-0 in Ivy League action. The Bulldogs' lone loss of the year came to 2023 national runner-up Boston College on April 3rd in Chestnut Hill.
- The Bulldogs fell behind 2-1 early before ripping a 5-0 run from the end of the first and into the second to clinch a 16-8 victory over Harvard and a berth to the Ivy League Tournament last Saturday.
- Jenna Collignon paced Yale's offense with six goals and seven points, while freshman Ashley Kiernan tallied four goals and an assist.
- Midfielder Fallon Vaughn had two goals, five caused turnovers, and four draw controls in the matchup with the Crimson to earn Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week.
- Collignon is a stud for Yale with a team-best 34 goals followed by Sky Carrasquillo (25). The junior duo pace a Bulldogs team that has the second-best shot percentage in the Ivy (.450). 
- Turnovers are not on the agenda for Yale in 2024 with the second-least turnovers per game in the conference (12.17). That metric is also ranked eighth nationally. 
- Yale's clearing unit has been crystal clear with a conference-best 0.943 percentage. That mark is third in the country behind Florida (0.963) and Clemson (0.946). 
- Freshman Laura O'Connor is a wall in the cage. The Greenwich, Conn. native is fourth in the country in Goals Allowed Average (8.25) and third in the conference in saves percentage (.426).
- Goals have come at a premium for opposing offenses against the Bulldogs. Yale has the second-best scoring defense in the country (7.75). A big reason for that has been because of Fallon Vaughn. The junior from Massachusetts leads the team with 20 caused turnovers and is tied with Penn's Sophie Davis with the most per game at 1.67. 
- Eric Bamford is in her eighth season at the helm of the Bulldogs, posting a 62-51 record. A former standout at North Carolina, Bamford has led the Bulldogs to consecutive Ivy League Tournament appearances.
- Bamford and head coach Jenny Graap also faced off in 2010 and 2011 when she was the offensive coordinator for the Florida Gators. Florida took the 2010 matchup in the Sunshine State (10-5), while Cornell upset the No. 2 Gators in Ithaca (9-6) for its first win over a top-five team in program history.

UP NEXT
Cornell closes its 2024 season with a trip to Rhode Island to battle the Brown Bears on Saturday, April 27. First draw is set for 1 p.m. from Stevenson-Pincince Field and will be available to stream on ESPN Plus.