ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cornell women's lacrosse team resumes Ivy League play this weekend when Yale visits Ithaca on Senior Day. Saturday will be the last home game for a group of nine Big Red seniors, and they will be looking to go leave Schoellkopf Field with an Ivy League Tournament berth all but assured.

GAME INFORMATION
GAME #13: No. 13/13 Cornell vs. Yale
GAME TIME: Saturday, April 21, 12 p.m.
GAME SITE: Schoellkopf Field (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Yale leads 19-14
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 14-3 on April 23, 2011
2011-12 RECORDS: Cornell (8-4, 3-2 Ivy League); Yale (5-8, 2-4 Ivy League)
LIVE STATS: Cornell Live Stats
LIVE VIDEO:  RedCast

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell continued a great season with a 17-10 runaway victory against then-No. 11 Loyola last weekend. But after that game, the Big Red suffered a 16-9 loss Tuesday night at the hands of No. 2 Syracuse. Syracuse took a 10-1 lead early in the first half, but Cornell eventually recovered with a 6-6 second half. Despite the loss, Cornell has already eclipsed its win totals from each of the last two years and its goal totals from each of the last three years, and the team is one win away from matching its 2009 total of nine. A senior-heavy team with 10 returning starters, Cornell is close to making the Ivy League Tournament for the first time since 2010.

HEAD COACH JENNY GRAAP
Jenny Graap returned to her alma mater in 1997 with one goal in mind: to build the Cornell women's lacrosse team into a championship contender. Now entering her 15th year at the helm, the 2002 Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association Coach of the Year and 2006 Inside Lacrosse Magazine and IWLCA Northeast Coach of the Year has developed the Big Red women's lacrosse program into one of the most successful in the nation. She has posted a 129-88 record at Cornell and earned her 150th career win against Florida to close the 2011 campaign.

ABOUT YALE
The Bulldogs, based in New Haven, Conn., are presently 5-8 on the year. The Bulldogs have not defeated a ranked team this season but are currently on a two-game winning streak. The team is coming off back-to-back wins over Ivy bottom dwellers Columbia and Brown. Yale is led on offense by senior attack Caroline Crow, who has 29 goals and 11 assists for 40 points. Goalkeeper Erin McMullan leads the team in minutes played and has a 10.63 goals against average. Yale is 78th in the country out of 90 teams in scoring offense with 9.50 goals per game.
Anne Phillips, a 1980 graduate of Franklin and Marshall, is now in her fourth year leading the Bulldogs.

THE SERIES WITH YALE
The Big Red's rivalry with the Bulldogs dates all the way back to 1980. In the 32 years since, Yale has won 19 of the teams' 33 meetings. Cornell, though, has won four consecutive times and no current member of the team has lost to the Bulldogs. Last season, Cornell won 14-3 thanks to a 13-0 run in the middle of the game, four goals from Jessi Steinberg and three from Shannon McHugh.

A WIN AGAINST YALE WOULD…
…be the team's fifth consecutive victory against the Bulldogs…improve Cornell's Ivy League record to 4-2…keep the Big Red at least tied for third in the league standings heading into the final weekend of league play…improve the team's home record to 4-3.

SENIOR DAY
Saturday will be the final home game for a group of nine women's lacrosse seniors. Kyla Dambach, Beth Halayko, Cacki Helmer, Katie Kirk, Olivia Knotts, Shannon McHugh, Ali O'Neil, Jessi Steinberg and Shannon Tierney will all see their home careers come to an end with the game agianst Yale.

TEN-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
At halftime of Saturday's game, the Big Red will honor the contributions of its 2002 team. Posting a 16-2 record and advancing to the national semifinals for the first time in team history, the 2002 Cornell women's lacrosse team was also the first Cornell women's team in any sport to make it to the NCAA Final Four. So far eight players have confirmed they will attend.

STEINBERG HELD GOALLESS
Jessi Steinberg was held without a goal in the loss to Syracuse for the first time since April 30, 2010. She rebounded well, though, scoring two goals in her next game against nationally-ranked North Carolina. Since that North Carolina game, she scored goals in 26 consecutive games in a streak that spanned nearly two full years.

NATIONAL PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
For her career-high, five-goal effort against then-No. 11 Loyola on Saturday, Cornell junior attacker Caroline Salisbury was named the WomensLax.com Player of the Week on Monday.
Three weeks earlier, senior attack Jessi Steinberg was named the WomensLax.com Player of the Week on April 2. Steinberg earned the award thanks to a four-goal, one-assist effort against Princeton. Her fourth goal of the game proved to be the overtime game-winner.

TOUGH STRETCH COMPLETE
The Big Red has now finished its toughest stretch of the year, playing five consecutive games against ranked opposition. No. 8 Penn, No. 16 Princeton, No. 6/10 Dartmouth, No. 11/12 Loyola and No. 2 Syracuse all faced Cornell in a four-week span, and the Big Red emerged with a 2-3 record in those games. The team dropped a one-goal game to Penn, beat Princeton by one goal in overtime, lost by two to Dartmouth, upended Loyola by seven before losing to Syracuse by the same amount.

RANK AND FILE
Cornell's victory over Loyola was its third win against a ranked opponent this year. The Big Red started its Ivy League slate with a win over then-ranked Harvard, defeated Princeton on the road in overtime, and then conquered Loyola on Saturday. Cornell's four losses this season have also all come against ranked teams.

OFFENSIVE DEFENSEMAN
Defenseman and captain Cacki Helmer has scored two goals this season, tripling her career total entering the season. She scored in the game against Jacksonville where it seemed like  every Big Red player was getting in on the action, but she also managed to get a goal against No. 2 Syracuse on Tuesday night, something only five other layers on the team can say. She now has three goals in her career.

CHARITABLE DONATION
The Big Red announced last week that it had raised more than $2,200 toward breast cancer research thanks to the efforts of its “Pink” game on Saturday against Dartmouth. Cornell's funds will all be donated to the Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes.

TIGERS BEAT
Cornell's 13-12 overtime victory at Princeton on Saturday was just the team's fourth victory ever against the Tigers. Cornell, though, has now beaten Princeton in its last two trips to New Jersey.

OVERTIME SUCCESS
The Princeton win was Cornell's first overtime game of the year and was its first road overtime win since April 10, 1993 at Yale. Cornell last played in overtime on March 20, 2011 against No. 6 Notre Dame. In that game Cornell also emerged victorious by a 6-5 margin. The team – which has won its last three overtime games – last lost in an extra period on Feb. 24, 2007 against Rutgers.

ROAD DOGS
Cornell has won four consecutive games against Yale, but it has also won three consecutive games against the Bulldogs in Schoellkopf Field. Surprisingly, the Big Red is stronger on the road this season than at home. Cornell is undefeated (5-0) in true road games this year while just 3-3 at home and 0-1 in neutral-site tilts.

SCORCHING SCORING PACE
The Big Red has already eclipsed its goal totals from the last three seasons. Averaging over 14 goals per game this year, the Big Red is on pace to score 211 goals by the end of the regular season. That mark would surpass the team record for goals in a season – 210, set in 2000 – by one.

QUICK ON THE DRAW
Senior midfielders and co-captains Shannon McHugh and Katie Kirk are quickly moving up the Big Red's all-time draw control list. Kirk is now all alone in sixth at 94 draw controls and is just three out of fifth place. McHugh, meanwhile, is now tied for eighth place all-time and would move up to seven with three more draw controls.

SCORING STREAKS
Through 12 games this season, two Cornell players have scored a point in every contest. Caroline Salisbury has each tallied at least one point in 12 contests and most recently scored three goals against Syracuse. Shannon McHugh, who missed the Columbia game on March 10, has scored in all 11 games she has played.

GOALS, GOALS, GOALS
The Big Red's 22-goal outburst at Jacksonville on March 20 tied the team's all-time record, set on May 1, 1994 against Rutgers. Cornell had scored 20 goals in a game just twice in its history before this season, but after the Jacksonville contest the Big Red had scored 20 goals twice in eight days. Cornell also recorded a 21-goal effort against Canisius on March 13.

NATIONALLY RANKED
Cornell moved up a few spots in this week's IWLCA coaches' poll to No. 13. In the deBeer Media Poll, Cornell also shot up four places to No. 13 after spending the last three weeks at No. 17.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Senior captain Jessi Steinberg earned Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week on March 19 for a 12-point week featuring nine goals and three assists. The award was the second of her career and the team's second weekly award of the season.
Senior captain Cacki Helmer earned Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week on March 12 for a terrific week where she had four caused turnovers and eight ground balls to go along with two Big Red victories. Heading into last week, Helmer led the nation in ground balls and caused turnovers per game.

BALANCED SCORING
Last season, Jessi Steinberg led the team with 38 goals, nearly doubling Katie Kirk's second-best mark on the team of 22. Steinberg is at 37 goals already this season, but Olivia Knotts and Caroline Salisbury have already surpassed Kirk's second-best 22 from last year. This year, nine different players have contributed at least six goals: Steinberg (37), Salisbury (30), Knotts (28), Shannon McHugh (15), Katie Kirk (14), Amanda D'Amico (10), Lindsay Toppe (seven), Chelsea Rowe (seven) and Lauren Halpern (six) are making sure the Big Red attack is dangerous all over. Last season, only six players all year reached the five-goal mark.

HATS OFF
Cornell has had a player record a hat trick in all of its games this year. In the season opener at Rutgers, Olivia Knotts scored the game-winning goal with 52 seconds left to complete her hat trick. Amanda D'Amico got her third goal late against Harvard. Against Colgate on March 7, Caroline Salisbury and Sarah Hefner each earned a hat trick, and Salisbury had four goals to her name.

In the home opener against Columbia, Jessi Steinberg scored four times, Katie Kirk has three goals and Knotts had her second hat trick of the season. Against Canisius, Steinberg scored five goals while Salisbury had three. In the Notre Dame contest, both Knotts (five) and Steinberg (four) eclipsed the three-goal mark.

At Jacksonville, Steinberg (three), Knotts (four) and D'Amico (three) continued the impressive streak that has now lasted more than half of the 15-game season. Steinberg also kept the streak alive against Penn when she scored five goals for the second time this year. Against Princeton, four players recorded a hat trick: Steinberg (four goals), McHugh, Salisbury and Kirk.

In the Dartmouth contest, Knotts and Salisbury kept the streak alive by each scoring three times. Knotts (three), Steinberg (four) and Salisbury (five) all reached the three-goal plateau on Saturday against Loyola. Salisbury continued her hat trick streak with three goals against Syracuse and is now at four consecutive games with a hat trick.

NATIONAL NUMBERS
Through last weekend's games, Cornell ranks near the top of the country in multiple statistical categories. The Big Red's scoring offense of 14.55 goals per game puts it at 12th in the country. Cornell's 14.45 draw controls per game also has the team 10th nationally. Cornell is also in 17th with a .727 win percentage.
Individually, Jessi Steinberg sits in 10th in the nation with her 4.91 points per game and is also tied at 10th with 3.36 goals per game. Cacki Helmer's 3.09 ground balls per game keeps her in seventh nationally.

IVY STATISTICS
The Big Red continues to lead the Ivy League in goals per game with 14.08 and is second in assists per game with 5.42.  The team scores more points per game (19.50), wins more draws (14.25) and takes more shots (30.42) per game than any team among the Ancient Eight.

As an individual, Jessi Steinberg leads the league in goals per game (3.08) while Olivia Knotts' 2.33 goals per game puts her in a tie for ninth. Caroline Salisbury is sixth in the Ivy League with 1.25 assists per contest, just behind Steinberg's 1.42 and ahead of Knotts' 1.17. Cacki Helmer is league's best player with 3.00 ground balls per game, and Shannon McHugh's 3.45 draw controls per game has her in fourth.

TEWAARATON WATCH LIST
Jessi Steinberg has been named to the 2012 Tewaaraton Award Watch list, InsideLacrosse.com announced before the season. Steinberg, who led the team in scoring last season with 42 points, is now in the early pool of players who will be considered for the Tewaaraton, college lacrosse's highest individual honor. Steinberg was one of 53 players named to the list across all three divisions of women's lacrosse.

CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
Against Syracuse:
• Katie Kirk scored her 75th point.
• Kelly Lang scored her 10th goal.
• Carly Gniewek doubled her career save total, going from seven to 14.
• Shannon McHugh earned her 65th career goal.

Approaching career numbers:
• Katie Kirk will reach 40 caused turnovers with one more.
• Courtney Gallagher's next save will be her 40th.
• Shannon Tierney's next goal will be her 10th.
• Cacki Helmer is two ground balls shy of 100.
• Caroline Salisbury is four goals away from 50.

UP NEXT
With its home schedule now complete, Cornell hits the road for its two final regular season games. The Big Red will take a midweek trip to Binghamton on Tuesday before ending the year with a trip to Brown on Saturday.