Team Notes: Cornell Returns to League Play at Harvard, Dartmouth

The following article appeared January 14 on the Cornell Web site.

With six weeks remaining in the 2009-10 regular season, the Cornell women's hockey team returns to league play, opening up with a series at Harvard and Dartmouth this weekend. The Big Red will face the Crimson on Friday, Jan. 15, at 7 p.m., in Cambridge, Mass., before battling Dartmouth the following afternoon at 4 p.m. in Hanover, N.H. The two games are part of a season-long five-game road trip for the Big Red women.

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell dropped three non-conference games last weekend while playing short-handed against Syracuse and twice against Providence. In the first-ever meeting between the Big Red and the Orange, Syracuse rallied with a third-period goal and won the game in overtime to overcome Karlee Overguard's first-period goal. Over the weekend in Providence, R.I., Cornell dressed just 12 skaters and fell, 6-3, in the opener on Saturday and 3-0 on Sunday. The three losses hurt Cornell slightly in the national polls, as Cornell fell from eighth to the highest team receiving votes in the USCHO.com poll and from eighth to 10th in the USA Today/USA Hockey poll. Cornell's offense is led by Catherine White, who has five goals and 10 assists for 15 points, and Chelsea Karpenko, who has a team-best seven goals and six assists. The pair are the only two players in double figures in scoring on the season for the Big Red. In goal, Amanda Mazzotta has played all but one game in net, posting a 1.68 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage with five shutouts.The Big Red enters the weekend with the nation's top penalty killing unit, successfully ending 54-of-55 opponents' power plays (98.2 percent). The Big Red also has converted on 18.2 percent of its own power plays, scoring 12 goals in 66 chances.

HEAD COACH DOUG DERRAUGH
In his fifth season behind the Big Red bench, Doug Derraugh has turned the Cornell women’s hockey program into one of women’s college hockey’s top young programs. Derraugh has a career record of 45-79-11, but has taken the Big Red to a back-to-back double-digit wins in each of the last two seasons, the first time the Big Red has done that since the 1999-2000 and 2000-01 seasons. He has also led Cornell to the ECAC Hockey playoffs in each of the last two years. Derraugh is assisted by Danielle Biloudeau, in her fourth season, and Edith Zimmering, in her first year with the Big Red.

Complete article can be accessed via the Cornell Web site by clicking here.