The NCAA Division III women's ice hockey is a college ice hockey competition governed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as part of the NCAA Division III (DIII or D3). Sixty-seven teams competed in NCAA Division III women's hockey across eight conferences in the 2023–24 season.
Conference affiliations and the conferences themselves experienced numerous changes in the later part of the 2010s. The most substantial alterations occurred with the founding of the Colonial Hockey Conference (CHC) in 2015 and the folding of ECAC West in 2017, which precipitated the creation of the Northeast Women's Hockey League (NEWHL) in the same year. The conferences and affiliations presented below are accurate through the 2019–20 season.[1]
A conference with seven or more affiliated programs automatically qualifies for the NCAA DIII Women's Ice Hockey Tournament.[2] In practice, the Colonial Hockey Conference (CHC) and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) are the only conferences that do not receive automatic bids for the tournament.
The Anna Maria Amcats women's ice hockey program of Anna Maria College in Paxton, Massachusetts has participated in the NCAA Division III as an independent team (ie. without conference affiliation) since the 2018–19 season.[3]
The Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) is a college athletic conference which operates in New England. It added women's ice hockey by taking over the former Colonial Hockey Conference (CHC; previously ECAC North Atlantic) in 2020. As of the 2023–24 season, there are five member programs:
The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) is a college athletic conference located in Minnesota. The women's ice hockey programs that compete in the MIAC include:[4]
The most recent change to the MIAC membership came after the 2020–21 season, when St. Thomas was expelled from the league and moved to NCAA Division I, joining the Summit League for most sports and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WHCA) in women's ice hockey.[5] St. Thomas was replaced by St. Scholastica.
The New England Hockey Conference (NEHC; previously ECAC East) is an ice hockey-only conference which operates in New England. As of the 2019–20 season, there are nine member programs in the women's division:
The New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) is a college athletic conference of liberal arts colleges and universities located in New England and New York. The member schools of the NESCAC are often referred to as the "Little Ivies." The women's ice hockey programs competing in the NESCAC are:[6]
The Northeast Women's Hockey League (NEWHL; successor of ECAC West) is a women's ice hockey-only conference comprising seven member schools in New York. It was founded in 2017 by the women's ice hockey teams of five schools in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC); its membership was increased to seven programs in 2019–20. The programs competing in the NEWHL are:
The Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) is a hockey-only conference, which operates in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin.[7] The women's programs competing in the NCHA are:
The United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) is a hockey-only conference which operates in the Mid-Atlantic region. The women's programs competing in the UCHC are:
The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) is a collegiate athletics conference in Wisconsin, primarily comprising institutions in the University of Wisconsin System. The women's ice hockey programs participating in the WIAC are:
| Year | Champion | Score | Runner-up | |
| 2002 | 2–1 | |||
| 2003 | 5–1 | Manhattanville | ||
| 2004 | 2–1 | UW-Stevens Point | ||
| 2005 | 4–3 | Elmira | ||
| 2006 | 3–1 | Plattsburgh | ||
| 2007 | Plattsburgh | 2–1 | Middlebury | |
| 2008 | Plattsburgh | 3–2 | Manhattanville | |
| 2009 | 4–3 (OT) | Elmira | ||
| 2010 | 7–2 | Norwich | ||
| 2011 | 5–2 | RIT | ||
| 2012 | 4–1 | Norwich | ||
| 2013 | 1–0 | Middlebury | ||
| 2014 | Plattsburgh | 9–2 | Norwich | |
| 2015 | Plattsburgh | 3–2 | Elmira | |
| 2016 | Plattsburgh | 5–1 | UW–River Falls | |
| 2017 | Plattsburgh | 4–3 (OT) | Adrian | |
| 2018 | 2–1 | Elmira | ||
| 2019 | Plattsburgh | 4–0 | Hamline | |
| 2020-2021 | Cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic | |||
| 2022 | Middlebury | 3–2 (OT) | Gustavus Adolphus | |
| 2023 | Gustavus Adolphus | 2–1 (3OT) | Amherst | |
| 2024 | UW–River Falls | 4–1 | Elmira | |
See main article: Laura Hurd Award. The Laura Hurd Award is an annual award given to the top player in NCAA Division III Women's Ice Hockey as awarded by the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA). Since 2007, it has been named after Laura Hurd, a stand-out player for Elmira College who was killed in a car accident. Previously, it was known as the Division III Women's Player of the Year Award.[8]
| Year | Winner | Pos. | School | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Middlebury College | |||
| 2001 | F | Middlebury College | ||
| 2002 | F | Gustavus Adolphus College | ||
| 2003 | Middlebury College | |||
| 2004 | F | Williams College | ||
| 2005 | F | Elmira College | ||
| 2006 | F | Middlebury College | ||
| 2007 | D | Gustavus Adolphus College | ||
| 2008 | Danielle Blanchard[9] | F | SUNY Plattsburgh | |
| 2009 | F | Elmira College | ||
| 2010 | G | Trinity College | ||
| 2011 | Sarah Dagg[10] | F | Rochester Institute of Technology | |
| 2012 | Julie Fortier[11] | F | Norwich University | |
| 2013 | Teal Gove[12] | F | SUNY Plattsburgh | |
| 2014 | Sydney Aveson[13] | G | SUNY Plattsburgh | |
| 2015 | Ashley Ryan[14] | F | Elmira College | |
| 2016 | F | Lake Forest College | ||
| 2017 | F | UW-River Falls | ||
| 2018 | F | SUNY Plattsburgh | ||
| 2019 | Bre Simon[15] | F | Hamline University | |
| 2020 | Amanda Conway[16] | F | Norwich University | |
| 2021 | Not awarded | |||
| 2022 | Callie Hoff[17] | F | UW-River Falls | |
| 2023 | Darci Matson[18] | F | Aurora University | |
| 2024 | Maddie McCollins | F | UW-River Falls | |