Minnesota the top seed in 2015 NCAA women’s tournament

The NCAA announced on Sunday the field of eight teams that will compete for the women’s Division I national championship.

Quarterfinal games will be played on the campuses of the participating schools, with the 2015 Women’s Frozen Four will be hosted by Minnesota on March 20 and 22, at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis.

Four conferences were awarded automatic bids by winning their respective postseason tournaments – Rochester Institute of Technology (CHA), Harvard (ECAC Hockey), Boston University (Hockey East) and Wisconsin (WCHA).

Boston College, defending champion Clarkson, Minnesota and Quinnipiac were selected as at-large teams.

The quarterfinals will be played Saturday, March 14, with two teams competing at each of the four quarterfinal sites. The winning team from each quarterfinal will advance to the Frozen Four.

Minnesota enters the tournament as the No. 1 seed and will host RIT. Boston College, the No. 2 seed, will host Clarkson. Harvard is the No. 3 seed, and will host Quinnipiac. Wisconsin, the No. 4 seed, will host BU.

Semifinal games will be played at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. EDT on Friday, March 20 and the championship game will be played at 4 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 22.

In 2014, Clarkson won its first national championship, defeating Minnesota 5-4.