Derek DunningNESCAC Season Preview Last weekend Middlebury, Trinity, Williams, and Wesleyan half kicked off the start of the 2008-2009 season for the NESCAC schools. Middlebury downed rival Williams 5-1 and Trinity hung seven goals on Wesleyan en route to a 7-1 win over the Cardinals. Finally, this weekend all 45 Division III women’s teams will have … Read more
Splits and Upsets for Everyone This past weekend featured two national powerhouses falling to unranked opponents in what turned out to be the first of what I expect to be many weekends this year with parity being the only word to describe it. The gap between the traditionally top-ranked teams and some of the middle-of-the-pack … Read more
Sleeper in the MIAC? This past weekend no team made a bigger statement than the Concordia-Moorhead Cobbers who upset, defending NCHA champion and Frozen Four finalist, Wisconsin-Superior 2-1 on the road. The Cobbers battled back after falling behind 1-0 in the first period on a goal from Superior’s Jessica Tyra. Kaylee Black knotted things up … Read more
Here come the Bears This season, Potsdam State will become the 46th Division III women’s team to participate in NCAA hockey. After playing last season as a club team, Jay Green’s Potsdam Bears will take to the ice Friday October 24 where they will be thrown right into the fire and face the two time … Read more
The NCAA Division III women’s hockey season is just about to commence and this year, two more teams will be playing their first NCAA affiliated varsity seasons. With the additions of Nichols College to the ECAC East and SUNY Potsdam to the ECAC West, there are now a total of 47 teams playing D-III hockey. … Read more
Frozen Four Preview For the third straight year, Plattsburgh and the Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena will play host to the NCAA D-III Women’s Frozen Four. Last year, Plattsburgh completed an unbeaten season with wins against Amherst and then beating Middlebury in the finals to halt the Panthers three straight National Championship streak. This year, … Read more
And Then There Were Seven Last weekend certainly had its surprises including both Middlebury and Plattsburgh losing in their respective conference tournaments. Fourth-seeded Colby provided the biggest shock of the weekend downing the top-seed and host Middlebury Panthers 3-2 in overtime in the NESCAC semifinals. The Elmira College Soaring Eagles also staved off elimination from … Read more
Streaks All coaches say that they want to see their teams playing their best hockey at the end of the season. Well, two teams have taken that message to heart and have saved their best for the second half of the season to surge to the top of their respective conferences. Amherst currently holds the … Read more
Playoff Fever! With Salve Regina’s 3-1 win over MIT on Tuesday night, the 2007-08 Women’s D-III regular season officially came to a close. Now, quoting Friday Night Lights, “Pass out the ammunition, we’re going to war,†as the second season is finally upon us. For everyone not in the NCHA (no auto-bid), the slates are … Read more
The Final Weekend Believe it or not, this weekend marks the end of the 2007-2008 Division III women’s hockey regular season. It seems like just yesterday players across the country were throwing on the practice jerseys and lacing up the skates for the first day of tryouts eager to hit the ice for the first … Read more
The old saying goes, don’t count your chickens before they hatch. Well, I was guilty of this last weekend when I had all but penciled in Stevens Point as the NCHA champions and top team in the West. The Pointers were unbeaten at 17-0-2 and coming off a huge 3-2 victory over Gustavus Adolphus on … Read more
Western Champs? The Stevens Point Pointers now officially have a stranglehold on the top position in the western region after defeating chief challenger Gustavus Adolphus on Tuesday night 3-2. With the win, Stevens Point stayed unbeaten and improved to 17-0-2 on the season. Gustavus Adolphus, who has only lost twice this year and came into … Read more
With the end of January upon us, the beginning of February signals the start of the home stretch run in Division III women’s hockey. For teams like Elmira, Amherst, Trinity, Superior, RIT, and St. Thomas it’s time to make their best pitch for an NCAA tournament bid if they fail to win an automatic bid. … Read more
Victory at Last The Chatham Cougars have been playing Division III women’s hockey for six seasons now. Their record before Sunday’s game against Oswego State was 0-96-1. Then, even if only for a brief moment, Chatham was at the center of the women’s hockey world. Head coach Phoebe Manchester and her team were sitting in … Read more
In a few short years, St. Anselm has become a power in the ECAC East — but the Hawks may never know the thrill of playing for postseason glory thanks to NCAA rules. Derek Dunning reports.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: We apologize for the significant tardiness with which the column was posted. The delay was due to a combination of technical and human error.] Separation Weekend In college basketball they have Separation Saturday. This weekend, Division-III women’s hockey will have their version of the popular ESPN-promoted day of games with three important series … Read more
Division-III women’s hockey was back in full force this past week with most of the teams returning to action to kick off the 2008 portions of their schedules. Some of the highlights of the first week of hockey in the new year were Bowdoin turning things around and getting their first win of the season … Read more
NESCAC/ECAC West Face-Off This weekend, RIT and Utica will kick-off the 2008 portions of their seasons on the road against some very stiff competition. The teams? Oh, you know, just two of last year’s Frozen Four competitors in Amherst and Middlebury. Saturday, the fourth-ranked Amherst Lady Jeffs will host the Utica Pioneers and third-ranked Middlebury … Read more
As the days now accumulate in 2008 and a second chance and fresh start arrives for some of the D-III teams, lets take a look back at the 2007 portion of this season and relive some of the memories from a great semester of women’s hockey. The season started out innocently enough with traditional powers … Read more
Bantam-weight: Trinity Steps Up Plattsburgh … Elmira … Middlebury … Stevens Point … Trinity? That’s right folks, I said Trinity. The Bantams are off to a tremendous start this season with a 5-1-1 record on the year and the USCHO.com voters are taking notice. Trinity received their first top-10 ranking in school history this past … Read more