ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell women's lacrosse team will attempt to maintain its early season momentum and pick up its second straight win at home when it welcomes Niagara to Schoellkopf Field on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 3 p.m. The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+.

• Cornell improved to 2-1 on the season with a dominant 15-6 victory over Central New York foe Colgate on Saturday, snapping a five-game home losing streak in the process.
• The Big Red jumped out to a 5-1 lead and then scored three goals in a span of 24 second sin the final minute of the first half to all but put the game away.
• Maggie Pons scored four times and Kylie Gelabert scored twice and assisted on three more goals to complete five-point efforts for the home team. 
• Dillyn Patten, Caitlin Slaminko and Alexa Donahoe each had two goals and an assist, while Ella Wilmot potted two more scores.
• This will be the first-ever matchup between the Big Red and the defending MAAC champion Purple Eagles, who went 16-4 overall a season ago.
• Head coach Jenny Graap's team returns five of its top six scorers, a veteran defense composed of four seniors, and its top  two goalkeepers.
• Cornell, picked sixth in the Ivy League's Preseason Media Poll, is coming off a 7-8 campaign (2-5 Ivy) from a season ago.

GAME INFORMATION
Cornell vs Niagara
DATE & TIME: Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 3:00 p.m.
SITE: Schoellkopf Field - Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 2-1 (0-0 Ivy); Niagara 1-2 (0-0 MAAC)
SERIES RECORD: First Meeting
BROADCAST: ESPN+
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com
GAME NOTES: CornellBigRed.com

THE SERIES
First Meeting

A WIN OVER NIAGARA WOULD ...
• push the Big Red's record to 3-1, including 2-0 at Schoellkopf Field.
• give Cornell a win over the Purple Eagles in the first ever meeting between the programs.
• push Graap's career record at Cornell to 237-169 (.584). and to 258-213 overall (.548).
• make Cornell 162-85-3 (.654) all-time against New York state schools.
• be the 379th in program history (378-334-4, .523).

VS. THE MAAC
• Cornell sports a 7-0 (1.000) all-time record against current members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC).
• The Big Red has won all seven previous contests against MAAC schools, outscoring them on average 17-9.
• Cornell holds series advantages over Canisius (3-0), Marist (2-0), Fairfield (1-0) and Sacred Heart (1-0).
• The Big Red has never faced Iona, Manhattan, Merrimack, Mount St. Mary's, Niagara, Quinnipiac, Rider or Siena .
• It is the Big Red's only scheduled matchup with a MAAC school this season.

LAST TIME OUT
• The Cornell women's lacrosse team used a quick start to lead from wire-to-wire in claiming a 15-6 victory over Central New York rival Colgate in the Big Red's home opener at Schoellkopf Field. 
• Cornell led 5-1 late in the first quarter, then scored three goals in the final 44 seconds of the first half to extend its lead to 9-4 at the break. 
• The Big Red slowly pulled away after the break in claiming its second win of the season.
• Maggie Pons scored four goals and added an assist and Kylie Gelabert scored two goals and chipped in three assists to pace six multi-point scorers. 
• Dylan Patten, Caitlin Slaminko and Alexa Donahoe each had two goals and an assist and Ella Wilmot scored twice. 
• Ellie Bergin came down with six of the Big Red draw control wins. 
• Ellie Horner picked up her 15th career win in goal with three saves in the first 30 minutes, while Mackenzie Clark stopped three shots after halftime and surrendered just two goals. 
• Caroline Panzirer paced the Raiders' offense with three goals and an assist and Lucy Licata won nine draws.

MILESTONE WATCH
• Senior Josie Vogel's 115 points ranks 22nd all-time at Cornell and is 10 from joining the top 20.
• She is also 10 goals from becoming the 16th player ever at Cornell to reach 100 career goals.
• Seniors Maggie Pons and Kylie Gellabert are both on the verge of joining 11 Big Red players to reach 40 career assists with third totals of 36. They are seven away from joining the top 10.
• With one more win in goal, senior Ellie Horner would jump to seventh in school history with 16, matching Kyla Dambach '12.

NOTES TO KNOW
• The Big Red has reached double figures in goals in all three contests this season.
• Cornell's offense has put at least 80 percent of its shots on target in every game this season.
• In two contests against unranked opponents in 2025, the Big Red defense has allowed just 7.0 goals and posted a .500 save percentage.
• The Big Red is 2-0 this season when leading at the half, keeping up its wild success when leading at the break under head coach Jenny Graap '86 (189-21, .900).
• Another big trend under Graap — Cornell is 190-25 (.884) when holding opponents to fewer than 10 goals in a game and 92-2 (.979) when that is six or fewer.
• The home-opening win over Colgate snapped a five-game losing streak at Schoellkopf Field.
• Senior Josie Vogel was named to the 2024 College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic At-Large All-District Team after sporting a 3.70 GPA in Government.
• In three games this season, junior Ella Wilmot (six goals, six assists) has already matched her career scoring total entering the campaign (12 points).
• Senior Maggie Pons enters the week with 81 points (45 goals, 36 assists) and is within striking distance of becoming the school's 29th 100-point scorer.
• Sophomore defender Julia Ramsey in a two-year letter winner on the field hockey team where she already ranks sixth in school history in career assists (21). Her sister, Caroline '24, is a two-time All-American, Cornell's all-time leading scorer and a member of the Team USA in field hockey.
• One of Ramsey's cousins was Annie Thomas '24, Cornell's all-time leader in draw controls (233).
• Junior midfielder Dillyn Patten joined the England Women's Senior Performance Squad this past December.
• The England Women's Field Lacrosse Team is ranked third in the world and won the Women's European Lacrosse Championship 2024. 
• Patten's sister, Kendall '24, played soccer for the Big Red, as did her mother, Corinne (Cantrall) Patten '92.
• The Big Red has qualified for the Ivy League Tournament 10 times in the 14 years it has been held.
• Senior defender Alessia Packard has a sister (Antonia '25, field hockey) and brother (Charles '34, men's lacrosse) who are recent Big Red graduates and varsity athletes.

THE CAPTAINS
• The Big Red is led by three captains this season: seniors Caitlin Slaminko and Lucy Dwyer along with junior Caitlin Tully. 
• Slaminko returns as a two-time captain, while Tully and Dwyer take on the role for the first time. 

NEW YORK STATE OF MIND
• The matchup with the Purple Eagles will be Cornell's 250th all-time game against fellow New York state schools.
• Cornell has traditionally been very successful against collegiate teams from New York state, posting an all-time record of 161-85-3 (.653).
• The Big Red has four New York teams on its schedule during the 2025 season – Syracuse (L, 18-10), Colgate (15-6), Binghamton and Columbia.

NOTES ON JENNY GRAAP '86
• Jenny Graap '86 ranks as the 12th active winningest Division I women's lacrosse coach with her 257 career victories. Directly ahead of her in 11th is Joe Spallina of Stony Brook with 283 victories.
• Her 28 seasons on the Big Red sidelines makes her the third-longest tenured coach at their school entering the 2025 season, behind only Duke's Kerstin Kimel (1996) and North Carolina's Jenny Levy (1996).
• Graap ranks fourth on the Ivy League's all-time wins list, behind only Princeton's Chris Sailer (433 from 1987-2022), Penn's Karin Corbett (270 from 2000-present) and Harvard's Carole Kleinfelder (259 from 1979-2003) as of Feb. 23.
• In her 28th season, Graap is the longest tenured women's head coach in school history  (in any sport) and is currently the Dean among women's lacrosse coaches in the Ivy League.
• Graap's 236 career wins (and counting) for the Big Red ranks her 12th all-time among Cornell head coaches in all sports and second among women coaches (behind Andrea Dutcher with 346 volleyball wins from 1974-87).

HALL OF FAME
• Jessi Steinberg '12 was inducted into the Cornell Athletics Hall of Fame this past fall.
• A three-time first-team All-Ivy League selection and a three-time IWLCA Northeast All-Region pick, she graduated with the fourth-most points (177), third-most goals (136) and eighth-most assists (41) in school history. 
• Steinberg's senior season total of 65 points was also the third-best single season ever at Cornell.
• The two-time Big Red team captain was the leading scorer for the Israeli national team that competed at the 2017 FIL World Cup and again competed in 2022 

IVY PRESEASON POLL
• The Big Red was chosen sixth in the Ivy League Preseason Media Poll announced in February.
• Cornell finished with a total of 54 points, just behind Harvard (71) and Brown (62) for the coveted fourth spot that will yield a spot in the Ivy League Tournament.
• Yale (125 points, 13 first-place votes), Penn (107 points, two first-place votes) and Princeton (104 points, one first-place vote) were chosen in the top three after making the NCAA Tournament a season ago.
• Dartmouth (54) and Columbia (17) rounded out the field.

NEXT UP
• Cornell begins its March slate of games when it visits Penn State on Saturday, March 1 at 1 p.m. at Panzer Stadium.
• The contest will be broadcast live on B1G+.
• The Nittany Lions lead the all-time series 12-3, including seven consecutive victories dating back to 2017.
• The Big Red's last win in the series came in 2016, a 10-7 victory in University Park.