Cornell head coach Dayna Smith announced her team’s 2019-20 schedule on Wednesday afternoon, unveiling a 13-game nonconference schedule that features seven home matches as well as games against teams from the Big 12 and Atlantic 10.
The Big Red’s early schedule is dominated with contests against tri-state neighbors, Albany, Binghamton, Colgate, Duquesne, Lafayette, Niagara, NJIT and St. Bonaventure, but the team will branch out with a visit from East Tennessee State and trips to TCU and West Virginia.
Of the first 13 games, the Red will not face any teams that made it to the NCAA Tournament and only compete against three teams with winning records. The Horned Frogs went 24-11 and finished the season in the WNIT Final Four, while the Mountaineers ended last season with a 22-11 record and made it to the WNIT Sweet 16. The Dukes went 19-13 and made it to the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 conference tournament, but failed to make it to the postseason.
After the Big Red start 2020 against East Tennessee State, the team has two weeks off before starting league play in New York City against travel partner Columbia on January 18. The following week, Cornell starts a three-game homestand against the Lions , Brown and Yale. The Red will hope to duplicate last year’s sweep of these teams at Newman Arena.
A visit to defending co-champions Princeton and Penn takes place on February 7 and 8, followed by a return home to take on Harvard and Dartmouth.
The Red will spend the next two weekends on the road with games against the Bulldogs, Bears, Big Green and Crimson. Cornell did well with these trips, a year ago, going 3-1. The team will finish the year against Penn on March 6 and Senior Night against the two-time Ivy Tournament champion Tigers.
If all breaks right, the Big Red will travel to Cambridge and return to the Ivy Tournament on March 14.
In 2018-19, Cornell went 12-14 and 6-8 in the Ancient Eight. The Red, which was 3-10 in 2018 and picked eighth for 2019, finished the conference schedule tied for fourth place with Dartmouth and Yale. Based on its 3-1 record against the Bulldogs and Green, the Red won the Ivy Madness tiebreaker and went to its first-ever trip to the conference tournament. The Red ended the year with a 68-47 defeat to Princeton.
Samantha Clement, who averaged 4.6 points and 14.7 minutes per game, graduated in the spring, while senior Caitlyn Smith (3.6 points and 17.6 minutes per game) and Jessica Willerson have left the program. Smith brings in a four-member first-year class to fill the roster.
The Red’s run to a second straight Ivy Tournament appearance will be led by senior forward Lauren Bagwell-Katalinich and wing Samantha Widmann. In her first year playing on East Hill, Bagwell-Katalinich was named first team All-Ivy with 28.9 minutes, 16.1 points (45.4 field goal and 84.2 free throw percentages) and 7.9 rebounds per game. Widmann, the two-time team captain, finished last season with 31.2 minutes, 10.8 points (45.5 field goal percent), 6.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.
2019-20 Cornell Women’s Basketball Schedule
11/8 Fri. at Albany
11/10 Sun. vs Texas Christian University
11/14 Thu. vs COLGATE
11/16 Sat. vs NJIT
11/21 Thu. vs NIAGARA
11/23 Sat. at Delaware State
11/27 Wed. vs UMass-Lowell
12/1 Sun. vs LAFAYETTE
12/5 Thu. vs BINGHAMTON
12/10 Tue. vs DUQUESNE
12/29 Sun. at St. Bonaventure
12/31 Tue. at West Virginia
1/4 Sat. vs EAST TENNESSEE STATE
1/18 Sat. at Columbia
1/25 Sat. vs COLUMBIA
1/31 Fri. vs BROWN
2/1 Sat. vs YALE
2/7 Fri. at Princeton
2/8 Sat. at Penn
2/14 Fri. vs HARVARD
2/15 Sat. vs DARTMOUTH
2/21 Fri. at Yale
2/22 Sat. at Brown
2/28 Fri. at Dartmouth
2/29 Sat. at Harvard
3/6 Fri. vs PENN
3/7 Sat. vs PRINCETON