Coming off a 4.5 point home weekend against Clarkson and St. Lawrence, women’s hockey is set to embark on its first conference road trip of 2026. The Red (11-6-2, 7-4-1 ECAC) will face off against Brown and No. 13 Yale, with major NCAA Percentage Index (the statistical formula which determines NCAA tournament at-large bids and seeding), ECAC and Ivy League standings implications. This weekend will also mark the first time Cornell takes on conference opponents for a second time, the Red swept its home weekend matchups against the Bears and Bulldogs.
Scouting the Bears
When the Red took on Brown (11-8-2, 7-5-2 ECAC) in November, the Bears were coming off a win over then-No. 7 Quinnipiac and a tie with then-No.10 Colgate. This time, Brown enters its matchup with Cornell coming off a disappointing weekend in which coach Melanie Ruzzi’s squad scored just a single goal between a 2-1 overtime loss to Harvard and a scoreless draw with Dartmouth. Brown currently sits fourth in the ECAC standings, half a point above Cornell with two more games played.
Statistically, the Bears enter the weekend with the 11th-best defense in the nation and a middle of the pack offense. The strong Brown defense — which averages 2.1 goals allowed per game — is headlined by a pair of netminders in Anya Zupkofska and Rory Edwards.
While Edwards has been solid in her 10 starts (2.44 goals against average, .916 save percentage) Zupkofska has been brilliant. The sophomore has notched three shutouts, picked up a career high 41 saves in a December 4-2 win over Yale, and owns the nation's fifth-best goals against average (1.55). Offensively, four year starter India McDadi paces the Bears with 18 points.
“I think that Brown plays a really physical, real tough team game,” said head coach Doug Derraugh ’91.
In Cornell’s 5-1 victory over Brown — the last win of a season opening 7-0 stretch — the Red scored a trio of power-play goals and limited the Bears to 19 shots on goal. With Brown’s penalty kill allowing goals on over a quarter of power plays (a dismal 41st out of 45 Division I teams), the Red will once again look to take advantage of its special teams opportunities.
Scouting the Bulldogs
After a slow start to its season Yale (14-7-0, 9-5-0 ECAC) has come alive in December and January and enters the weekend riding a six game win streak. Sitting second in the ECAC Hockey standings (partially due to having played more games than most other teams), the Bulldogs picked up their biggest win of the season on Jan. 6, when they upset then-No. 6 Northeastern 3-0 at home. While Cornell picked up a 3-0 win of its own in the two teams first meeting, the final score didn’t tell the whole story.
“Yale’s got a lot of speed,” Derraugh said. “They created a lot of chances when they were here, I thought they outplayed us.”
In many ways, Yale and Cornell are similar. Both squads feature explosive offenses, which rely on top-five ranked power plays, and have helped their defenses by staying out of the penalty box. As was partially the case in Cornell’s October win, when the Red were outshot 39-21, the difference could come down to goaltending. Junior goaltender Annelies Bergmann has been excellent for Cornell, while Yale’s trio of netminders has combined for a .908 saves percentage, .020 worse than Bergmann’s.
Bergmann is One to Watch
The Women’s Hockey Commissioners Association released its first 2026 Goaltender of the Year Award Watch List on Wednesday, and for the third consecutive season Bergmann was among the netminders honored. The 2025 ECAC Goaltender of the Year is in the midst of another impressive season, serving as a steady presence in net behind a defensive corps which has struggled at times after graduating Rory Guilday ’25 and Ashley Messier ’25. The Detroit native has played every minute in net for Cornell this season, and her four shutouts are tied for sixth in the nation.
ICYMI: A Trio of Cornellians is Headed to Milan
Guilday will become the first Cornellian to represent the United States in women’s hockey at the Milano Cortina Olympics, while Canadian Brianne Jenner ’15 has tied the school record by being selected to play in her fourth Winter Games. Kristin O’Neill ’20 will join Jenner and make her Canadian Olympic debut. Read more about the Olympic trio here.
Cornell will take on Brown Friday night at 6 p.m. in Providence, Rhode Island. The next day, the Red will travel to New Haven, Connecticut, to take on Yale at 3 p.m. Both games will be streamed live on ESPN+.
Eli Fastiff is a senior editor on the 143rd editorial board and a member of the class of 2026 in the College of Arts and Sciences. You can follow him on X @Eli_Fastiff and reach him at efastiff@cornellsun.com.
