ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell women's lacrosse team will challenge a pair unbeaten squads  while getting off to a good conference start and picking up a victory over a ranked foe as the Big Red begins a three-game home stand this weekend. The Big Red will face 4-0 Brown in its Ivy opener on Friday, March 7 at 7 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field, then meets #7/6 Stanford (6-0) on Sunday, March 9 at 12 p.m. The contests will be broadcast on ESPN+.

• Cornell improved to 4-1 on the year with a pair of victories last week, including a 14-8 road triumph at Penn State that snapped a seven-game skid against the Nittany Lions.
• Senior midfielder Caitlin Slaminko had a five-goal performance at Penn State to give her the team lead in scores on the year with 17.
• The Big Red had a record-breaking performance earlier in the week against Niagara, putting up single-game school records for goals (24), assists (17) and points (41).
• Senior Kylie Gelabert was named Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week after she posted eight goals and five assists for 13 points in the two wins, including a seven-goal, nine-point effort against Niagara.
• Cornell's offense has been explosive, averaging 15.4 goals per game with all five contests in double figures.
• The Big Red ranks third nationally in assists per game (9.2) and is sixth in points per game (24.6) after its first five contests.
• Cornell is also 11th in scoring offense (15.4 gpg.) and 13th in scoring margin (+6.0 per game).
• 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) a season ago.

GAME INFORMATION
Brown at Cornell
DATE & TIME: Friday, March 7 at 7:00 p.m.
SITE: Schoellkopf Field - Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Brown 4-0 (0-0 Ivy); Cornell 4-1 (0-0 Ivy)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads 25-18
BROADCAST: ESPN+
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com
GAME NOTES: CornellBigRed.com

#7/6 Stanford at Cornell
DATE & TIME: Sunday, March 9 at 12:00 p.m.
SITE: Schoellkopf Field - Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Stanford 6-0 (2-0 ACC); Cornell 4-1 (0-0 Ivy)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads 7-4
BROADCAST: ESPN+
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com
GAME NOTES: CornellBigRed.com

A WIN OVER BROWN WOULD ...
• move the Big Red's record to 5-1 on the season and serve as its fourth straight victory.
• snap a three-game skid against the Bears and give Cornell its first win over Brown since 2019.
• make Cornell 1-0 in the Ivy League for the third consecutive season.
• push Graap's career record at Cornell to 239-169 (.586). and to 260-213 overall (.550).
• be the 381st in program history (380-334-4, .532).

VS. THE ACC
• Cornell sports a 33-42 (.440) all-time record against current members of the ACC.
• Cornell holds all-time series advantages against Boston College (8-4), Cal (6-0), Stanford (7-4) and Virginia Tech (2-0).
• The Big Red trails in series against North Carolina (0-3), Notre Dame (5-7), Syracuse (5-22) and Virginia (0-2).
• The Big Red has never faced Clemson, Duke, Louisville or Pitt .
• The is Cornell's second and final regular season matchup with an ACC school this season following its 18-10 defeat at Syracuse earlier this year.

LAST TIME VS. BROWN
•  Cornell women's lacrosse team rebounded from an eight-goal first quarter deficit to get within two but could not pull off the comeback in a 23-17 loss to Brown at Stevenson-Pincince Field. 
• Attacker Josie Vogel had a career day for the Big Red with a team-high five goals and three assists, including a first-half hat trick. 
• Caitlin Slaminko also had a strong outing with her second hat trick of the season alongside two assists. 
• Bridget Babcock (two goals, one assist), Kylie Gelabert (two goals, one assist), and Alexa Donahoe (two goals) closed out a Big Red offense that had 79 percent (22-28) of its shots on cage. 
• Annie Thomas also had a team-best five draw controls to finish her career with a program-best 233 wins. 
• Mia Mascone led a potent Brown offense with six goals, four assists, and a game-high eight draw controls.

MILESTONE WATCH
• Senior Josie Vogel's 120 points rank 22nd all-time at Cornell and are five from joining the top 20.
• Vogel is six goals from becoming the 16th player ever at Cornell to reach 100 career goals.
• Senior Kylie Gellabert (41) is two assists from joining the top 10 in school history, while Maggie Pons (38) is two helpers from becoming the 13th player in school history to hit the 40-assist milestone.

LAST TIME OUT
• For the second straight game, the Cornell offense exploded out of the gates and cruised to a win as the Big Red topped Penn State 14-8 at Panzer Stadium. 
• The Big Red got on the board first and the Nittany Lions knotted the score, but a 7-0 Cornell run put the visitors in the driver's seat. 
• It was 9-2 at the end of 15 minutes, and Penn State never got back in it.
• Senior Caitlin Slaminko was all over the field with five goals, four draw controls and three ground balls, while Kylie Gelabert scored once and assisted on three others. 
• Ella Wilmot (two goals, one assist), Maggie Pons (two goals, one assist) and Josie Vogel (two goals) all had multi-point afternoons, while four players had multiple caused turnovers in a strong defensive effort - Lexie Tully, Alexa Donahoe and Sorelle Lawton. 
• In goal, Ellie Horner won eight ground balls and caused a pair of turnovers in addition to making six saves in the cage. 
• Erika Ho posted a hat trick for Penn State, with Kelly MacKinney being credited with a goal and four helpers.

NOTES TO KNOW
• The Big Red has reached double figures in goals in all five contests this season.
• Cornell set team records for goals (24), assists (17) and points (41) in the Big Red's 24-7 victory over Niagara, while its 21 draw controls were tied for the third-most in school history.
• Kylie Gelabert recorded seven goals, two assists and nine points in the win over Niagara, scoring goals on all seven shot attempts. The seven goals and nine points were both one shy of the Big Red single-game records.
• Ella Wilmot's eight-point effort (three goals, five assists) against the Purple Eagles left her one short of the single-game school record for assists and her points total good for ninth all-time.
• Cornell's offense has put at least 70 percent of its shots on target in four of five games this season and over 80 percent three times.
• In four contests against unranked opponents in 2025, the Big Red defense has allowed just 7.3 goals and posted a .482 save percentage.
• The Big Red is 4-0 this season when leading at the half, keeping up its wild success when leading at the break under head coach Jenny Graap '86 (191-21, .901).
• Another big trend under Graap — Cornell is 192-25 (.885) when holding opponents to fewer than 10 goals in a game and 92-2 (.979) when that is six or fewer.
• 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 five games this season, junior Ella Wilmot (11 goals, 12 assists) has nearly doubled her career scoring total entering the campaign (12 points).
• Senior Maggie Pons enters the week with 85 points (47 goals, 38 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 '24, 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 Niagara on Feb. 25 was 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 162-85-3 (.654).
• The Big Red has four New York teams on its schedule during the 2025 season – Syracuse (L, 18-10), Colgate (15-6), Niagara (24-7) and Columbia.

NOTES ON JENNY GRAAP '86
• Jenny Graap '86 ranks as the 12th active winningest Division I women's lacrosse coach with her 259 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 (271 from 2000-present) and Harvard's Carole Kleinfelder (259 from 1979-2003) as of March 1.
• 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 238 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
• The Big Red steps back out of conference when it welcomes Binghamton to Schoellkopf Field on Tuesday, March 18 at 5 p.m.
• The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
• Cornell leads the all-time series between the programs 10-1 after last season's 15-7 Big Red victory in Vestal, N.Y.
• The Bearcats claimed their first and only win over Cornell in 2023 in Ithaca, 13-12..