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Women's Soccer Looks To Get Back on Track vs. Le Moyne
ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's soccer team returns home on Wednesday night, looking to even its record after hosting Le Moyne in the programs' first meeting in 33 years under the lights at Berman Field. The game will be broadcast on ESPN3.
GAME INFORMATION
Le Moyne at Cornell DATE: Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018 TIME: 7 p.m. SITE: Berman Field – Ithaca, N.Y. (natural surface) RECORDS: Cornell 1-2, Le Moyne 1-0 VIDEO: ESPN3 LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
ABOUT THE BIG RED
• Cornell comes in off a pair of losses, most recently a 2-1 setback Monday at Siena. The Saints scored twice in the opening 40 minutes before Aidan Julia Reineman scored her first collegiate goal early in the second half for Cornell. A fellow freshman, Evanthia Spyredes, earned the assist on the play for her first collegiate point. • The Big Red split two Friday matches to open its season, first rallying for a 2-1 overtime victory Aug. 24 at St. Bonaventure before a 2-0 setback against Buffalo last Friday. • Cornell started up its 37th varsity season in dramatic fashion, with junior center back Kaili Gregory's golden goal on a free kick from 22 yards in the 100th minute against the Bonnies. • Gregory also set up the Big Red's first goal of the season, making a long pass that led to sophomore midfielder Naomi Jaffe's goal from a near impossible angle in the 65th minute to tie the game. • For a full preview of the Big Red's 2018 season, go to https://cornellbigred.com/news/2018/8/23/outlook-more-goals-the-goal-for-womens-soccer.aspx.
HEAD COACH DWIGHT HORNIBROOK
• After serving as an assistant coach for five seasons, Dwight Hornibrook was named the program's sixth head coach in advance of the 2017 season. • Hornibrook had 17 years of head coaching experience with the men's soccer programs at Houghton and SUNY Cortland before joining the Cornell women's soccer team. He has helped the Big Red win 33 games over the last six-plus years and now has an overall record as a head coach of 185-126-33. • Two-time Cornell captain goalkeeper Tori Christ '14 returns for her second season as an assistant coach, and Eva Francavilla has joined the staff as an assistant coach.
BY THE NUMBERS
• Senior midfielder Jessica Ritchie is Cornell's active scoring leader with three goals and three assists for nine points. Junior forward Kennedy Yearby also has three career goals, adding an assist for seven career points. Junior defender Kaili Gregory also has two career goals, both on restarts – the first a penalty kick, and the second on a free kick just outside the box. • Senior Meghan Kennedy returns as the squad's primary goalkeeper for a third season after leading the Ivy League with 82 saves last year. She enters the game against Le Moyne with a 1.33 career goals against average that ranks seventh on the program's all-time list and a .820 career save percentage that ranks 10th.
QUICK STARTERS
• Cornell has had great success in the program's 37 season openers, picking up a 21-11-5 mark in the first game of the season after an overtime victory Aug. 24 at St. Bonaventure. • The Big Red is now 3-0 when opened its season against the Bonnies. The first was a 5-0 affair on Sept. 10, 1993 in Ithaca, and the second was a final of 2-0 on Sept. 2, 2005 in Olean. • Cornell now has three overtime victories to start the season in its history. The others were Sept. 4, 1994 at Penn State and Sept. 5, 2014 at Massachusetts.
A CALL TO ARMBANDS
• Seniors Meghan Kennedy and Jessica Ritchie are serving as the Big Red's co-captains this season. Both players figure to be among the team's leading contributors this season, with both wearing the armband for the first time in their collegiate careers. Cornell carries just three seniors and has 14 underclasswomen on its roster of 23.
NATIONAL APPEAL
• The Big Red has 12 different states and the District of Columbia represented on the team roster of 23. • The most represented state on the Big Red is California, which is called home by six players. Four hail from New Jersey, three from Florida, and one each from Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia. • Though there are no Canadians among the players, head coach Dwight Hornibrook is native to the New Brunswick capital of Fredericton.
ABOUT LE MOYNE
• The Dolphins, who compete in the NCAA Division II ranks and the Northeast-10 Conference, opened their season with a 2-0 victory in non-league play against Roberts Wesleyan. • Sophomore Elizabeth Maguire scored both of Le Moyne's goals in its opener, both on feeds from sophomore back Erica Wasserbach. The first came on a free kick in the 19th minute, and the insurance goal came in the 63rd. • Senior goalkeeper Anastasija Cumika made six saves for the shutout, her eighth at Le Moyne since transferring from West Florida. • The Dolphins' last game against a Division I opponent was Aug. 31, 1997, when it took on Canisius at the Wheeling Jesuit University Tournament. • Carrie Bonus is in her second season as head coach at Le Moyne. She has familiarity with Ithaca, having served as an assistant coach on South Hill for Ithaca College from 2012-2014.
THE SERIES WITH LE MOYNE
• The Big Red has won all three of its previous meetings with Le Moyne, though the programs have not met in 33 years. • Cornell defeated Le Moyne, 1-0, the last time the teams met on Oct. 23, 1985. It was the third consecutive year the fledgling programs clashed, all coming in late October. • The Big Red did not concede a goal in any of the games, holding a cumulative advantage of 7-0.
UP NEXT
• Cornell hits the road for a pair of Sundays contests in its next action, first taking on perennial non-league opponent Binghamton at 1 p.m. Sunday before visiting St. Joseph's at 1 p.m. on Sept. 16.
