Bucknell University Athletics
Bison Women's Soccer Visits Penn State, Hosts Cornell this Week
9/15/2010 8:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Sept. 15, 2010
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bison women's soccer team looks to mount a turnaround this week when it travels to Penn State Wednesday night and plays host to Cornell on Sunday at 3 p.m. Bucknell is looking to shake a five-game losing streak, and to do so it will need a repeat of last year's performances against these opponents. Against Penn State in 2009 the Bison earned a 0-0 tie and their first-ever point against the Nittany Lions, then they went to Ithaca and posted a 4-2 victory.
Penn State, nationally ranked earlier this fall, has gotten off to a tough start as well. The Nittany Lions are 1-5-1 on the year and have not won since defeating No. 24 West Virginia in the season opener. In game No. 2 they tied No. 15 Virginia, but they have dropped five in a row since then, including a pair of matches to Washington and No. 4 Portland last weekend in Oregon.
Cornell is currently 1-3 on the season, with the lone victory a 7-0 pasting of Delaware State on Sept. 5. Last weekend the Big Red dropped contests to St. Bonaventure and Seton Hall at the Raider Invitational at Colgate.
In Bucknell's most recent action, it fell 2-1 in overtime to Saint Francis (Pa.). The Bison scored just five minutes into the game, but the Red Flash equalized 10 minutes later and then won it on a Tesa McKibben goal in the fourth minute of overtime.
Bucknell would like to get its offense going. The team has scored five goals in seven games thus far, with Patriot League Preseason Offensive Player of the Year Christa Matlack accounting for three of them, including the tally at Saint Francis last week.
Coverage
• Click HERE for a live video Webcast of the Bucknell-Penn State game. 
• Click HERE for GameTracker coverage of the Bucknell-Penn State game. 
• Click HERE for GameTracker coverage of the Bucknell-Cornell game.
Series Notes
• Penn State is 13-0-1 in 14 previous meetings with Bucknell. Seven of those contests have been decided by two goals or less, including last year's scoreless draw at Emmitt Field.
• These two teams have met twice in the NCAA Tournament. In the first round in 2001, Penn State prevailed 3-1. That game was tied at 1-1 at halftime before the Nittany Lions scored twice in a two-minute span mid-way through the second period. In 2005, No. 1 seed Penn State outmanned the Bison 6-0 in the opening round, upping their season record to 20-0-1 at the time.
• In the last meeting at Jeffrey Field in 2008, No. 10 Penn State's Danielle Toney scored just 1:46 into the game, but the Bison settled in and kept it a 1-0 game for the rest of the half. Then just 56 seconds into the second period, Christa Matlack barged in on a breakaway and chipped a shot over the goalkeeper's head to even the match. It stayed 1-1 until Katie Schoepfer scored in the 59th minute, and then just 1:03 later Nikki Watts made it 3-1 off a feed from Schoepfer. The Bison were still not done, as Jennifer Dervarics scored on a breakaway in the 67th minute to make it a 3-2 game. Bucknell continued to pressure the Penn State zone, generating a number of good scoring chances over the next 20 minutes. Perhaps the best opportunity came on a corner kick with 4:30 remaining. Dervarics' header hit the near post, then Canter tried to back-heel one in from close range, but Naehring was there for the save. Penn State iced it on a counter-attack, with Zoe Bouchelle scoring with only 2:15 left in regulation.
• Last year, senior keeper Kathryn Sutton was the story of the game for the Bison. Sutton made one highlight-reel save after another to preserve the 0-0 tie. She finished with 11 total saves and broke the Bucknell career shutout record in the process.
• Bucknell went 0-9-1 in its first 10 meetings with Cornell, but the Bison have won the last five head-to-head matchups to pull within 5-9-1 in the series.
• Last season in Ithaca, Christa Matlack had two goals and an assist and Caitlin Holtz added a goal and an assist in Bucknell's 4-2 win over the Big Red. Megan DeGennaro also scored for the Bison, who were outshot 16-11 in the game but managed to put four of those 11 attempts in the back of the net.
Bison Notebook
• Christa Matlack continues to lead the Bison in scoring with seven points on three goals and one assist through seven games. Matlack is tied for fifth in the Patriot League in goals.
• With 28 career goals, Matlack is now tied for sixth place alongside Jennifer Margolis on Bucknell's career chart. Next on the list is Kerry McDonnell with 30 goals.
• With her goal against Saint Francis last time out, Matlack passed Margolis and moved into sixth on Bucknell's career points list with 68. McDonnell is next on that list as well with 76.
• Sophomore Sandita McDermott has played the last three full games in goal. She had seven saves against Saint Francis on Friday after recording 12 against Binghamton and a career-high 13 against Rutgers in her previous two outings. McDermott leads the Patriot League in saves per game (7.0) despite a couple of shared outings.
About Penn State
• The Nittany Lions have been outscored 14-9 so far, despite a 115-102 shot advantage.
• Christine Nairn, Hayley Brock, Maya Hayes and Danielle Toney all have two goals on the season, while Tani Costa has one. • Toney, who has 32 career goals, and Nairn have been named to the Hermann Trophy Watch List.
• Krissy Tribbett has played every minute in goal so far for Penn State. She has 19 saves while allowing 14 goals.
• Penn State third-year head coach Erica Walsh was an assistant coach for the gold-medal-winning Team USA at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and Walsh has a long history with Bison coach Ben Landis. Walsh was Bucknell's very first graduate assistant coach in 1997, the year Landis left Bucknell to coach at Lehigh. The two coaches had become acquainted while working camps together and competing against one another in the Patriot League, and in 2000 when Walsh became the head coach at Dartmouth, she hired Landis as her assistant. The two worked together for three seasons, helping the Big Green to three NCAA berths, two trips to the final 16, two Ivy League titles and a national ranking as high as No. 13. When Walsh resigned after the 2002 season to work on her MBA at Lehigh, Landis was named her successor as head coach at Dartmouth.
About Cornell
• The Big Red are idle until visiting Lewisburg on Sunday.
• Cornell has outscored foes 9-7 on the season, but seven of those goals came in the rout of Delaware State.
• Megan Crowell and Mary Keroack lead the team with two goals apiece, while five others have one goal. Rachel Nichols has three assists.
• Cornell has used three goalkeepers already this season, with Kelly Murphy (1-1, 9 SV, 2 GA) and Megan Bartlett (0-2, 12 SV, 5GA) sharing the bulk of the duties.
Looking Ahead
• The Cornell game begins a stretch of four out of five games at home for Bucknell. Following that game the Bison will host Mount St. Mary's on Wednesday, Sept. 22, in the first Bison Vision live Webcast of the year.
