NCAA Division III women's ice hockey tournament explained

NCAA Division III women's ice hockey tournament
Sport:	College ice hockey
Number Of Teams:	11
Format:	Single-elimination tournament
Years:	2002–present
Current Stadium:	Hunt Arena
Current Location:	River Falls, Wisconsin
Most Recent:	2024
Current Champion:	Wisconsin–River Falls (1)
Most Championships:	Plattsburgh State (7)
Television:	NCAA.com
Website:	https://www.ncaa.com/sports/icehockey-women/d3

The annual NCAA Division III women's ice hockey tournament is a college ice hockey tournament held in the United States by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to determine the top women's team in the NCAA. The 2020 and 2021 championships were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[1]

Origins

The NCAA Division III championship of women's ice hockey began in 2002.

NCAA Division III women's ice hockey

See main article: NCAA Division III women's ice hockey.

Seventy-one schools in the United States, ranging from the Midwest to the East Coast, sponsor varsity women's hockey at the Division III level. Eight conferences are currently recognized by the NCAA—Colonial Hockey Conference, Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, New England Hockey Conference, New England Small College Athletic Conference, Northeast Women's Hockey League, Northern Collegiate Hockey Association, United Collegiate Hockey Conference, and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Format

This tournament is a single elimination competition of ten teams. The semi-finals and finals are called the "Women's Frozen Four." The winners of the semi-finals move on to the championship, where the losers play in the third place game.

History

Year	Champion^[2]	Coach	Score	Runner-up	Coach	City	Arena
2002	Elmira	Jamie Wood	2–1	Manhattanville	Nicole Kirnan	Elmira, New York	First Arena
2003	Elmira (2)	Jamie Wood	5–1	Manhattanville	Nicole Kirnan	Elmira, New York	First Arena
2004	Middlebury	Bill Mandigo	2–1	Wisconsin–Stevens Point	Brian Idalski	Middlebury, Vermont	Chip Kenyon Arena
2005	Middlebury (2)	Bill Mandigo	4–3	Elmira	Paul Nemetz-Carlson	Elmira, New York	First Arena
2006	Middlebury (3)	Bill Mandigo	3–1	Plattsburgh State	Kevin Houle	Plattsburgh, New York	Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena
2007	Plattsburgh State	Kevin Houle	2–1	Middlebury	Bill Mandigo	Plattsburgh, New York	Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena
2008	Plattsburgh State (2)	Kevin Houle	3–2	Manhattanville	Lauren McAuliffe	Plattsburgh, New York	Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena
2009	Amherst	Jim Plumer	4–3 (ot)	Elmira	Greg Fargo	Middlebury, Vermont	Chip Kenyon Arena
2010	Amherst (2)	Jim Plumer	7–2	Norwich	Mark Bolding	St. Peter, Minnesota	Lund Arena
2011	Norwich	Mark Bolding	5–2	RIT	Scott McDonald	Rochester, New York	Frank Ritter Memorial Ice Arena
2012	RIT	Scott McDonald	4–1	Norwich	Mark Bolding	Rochester, New York	Frank Ritter Memorial Ice Arena
2013	Elmira (3)	Dean Jackson	1–0	Middlebury	Bill Mandigo	Superior, Wisconsin	Superior Ice Arena
2014	Plattsburgh State (3)	Kevin Houle	9–2	Norwich	Mark Bolding	Plattsburgh, New York	Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena
2015	Plattsburgh State (4)	Kevin Houle	3–2	Elmira	Dean Jackson	Plattsburgh, New York	Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena
2016	Plattsburgh State (5)	Kevin Houle	5–1	Wisconsin–River Falls	Joe Cranston	Plattsburgh, New York	Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena
2017	Plattsburgh State (6)	Kevin Houle	4–3 (ot)	Adrian	Chad Davis	Adrian, Michigan	Arrington Ice Arena
2018	Norwich (2)	Mark Bolding	2–1	Elmira	Tim Crowley	Northfield, Vermont	Kreitzberg Arena
2019	Plattsburgh State (7)	Kevin Houle	4–0	Hamline	Natalie Darwitz	Mendota Heights, Minnesota	St. Thomas Ice Arena
2020	Not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2021
2022	Middlebury (4)	Bill Mandigo	3–2 (ot)	Gustavus Adolphus	Mike Carroll	Middlebury, Vermont	Chip Kenyon Arena
2023	Gustavus Adolphus	Mike Carroll	2–1 (3ot)	Amherst	Jeff Mathews	Amherst, Massachusetts	Orr Rink
2024	Wisconsin–River Falls	Joe Cranston	4–1	Elmira	Greg Haney	River Falls, Wisconsin	Hunt Arena

Team titles

Team		Years
	7	2007, 2008, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019
	4	2004, 2005, 2006, 2022
	3	2002, 2003, 2013
	2	2009, 2010
	2	2011, 2018
	1	2023
	1	2012
	1	2024

Result by school and year

32 teams have appeared in the NCAA DIII Tournament in at least one year starting with 2002. The results for all years are shown in this table below.

The code in each cell represents the furthest the team made it in the respective tournament:

• Opening round (did not exist until 2018)
  • 2 teams who lost in 2020 before the tournament was canceled.
• Quarterfinals
  • 8 teams selected in 2020 who were in the quarterfinals before the tournament was canceled.
• Frozen Four
• National Runner-up
• National Champion

School	Conference as of 2024		F4	CG	CH
		19	15	8	7
	NESCAC	19	10	6	4
	NEHC	18	12	8	3
	NESCAC	9	4	3	2
	NEHC	11	7	5	2
	MIAC	17	10	2	1
	moved to NC	3	2	2	1
	WIAC	9	6	1	1
	UCHC	8	4	3	0
	WIAC	5	3	1	0
	MIAA	6	3	1	0
	MIAC	2	2	1	0
	moved to NC	6	2	0	0
	NESCAC	5	2	0	0
	NESCAC	2	1	0	0
	WIAC	2	1	0	0
	WIAC	4	0	0	0
	NESCAC	3	0	0	0
	CCC	3	0	0	0
	UCHC	3	0	0	0
	NESCAC	2	0	0	0
	Midwest	2	0	0	0
	NESCAC	2	0	0	0
	MIAC	1	0	0	0
	MIAC	1	0	0	0
	NACC	1	0	0	0
	NEHC	1	0	0	0
	SUNYAC	1	0	0	0
	NACC	1	0	0	0
	CCC	1	0	0	0
	SUNYAC	1	0	0	0
	CCC	1	0	0	0
School	Conference as of 2024		F4	CG	CH

See also

• Laura Hurd Award
• NCAA women's ice hockey tournament
• Title IX
• NCAA Division III men's ice hockey tournament

References

1. Web site: Staff . USCHO . 2022-03-08 . After no championship since 2019, women’s college hockey Division III national tournament returns with 10-team field for 2022 . 2022-03-12 . College Hockey USCHO.com . en-us.
2. Web site: DIII Women's Ice Hockey Championship History NCAA.com . 2022-03-12 . www.ncaa.com . en.