The 2024 NCAA Division III Women’s Ice Hockey Tournament was a tournament to determine the Division III national champion in women’s ice hockey. This was the twenty-fourth (twenty-third completed) time a national championship tournament at the Division III level had been held and was the twenty-second (twenty-first completed) one sanctioned by the NCAA.
Format
Eleven teams qualify for the single elimination tournament. The conference tournament champions of the CCC, MIAC, NCHA, NEHC, NESCAC, SUNYAC, and UCHC received automatic bids to the tournament. The SUNYAC launched women’s hockey for the 2023-24 season, assuming the place of the NEWHL. Four at-large bids were also selected, one guaranteed to a school from a non-automatic-qualifier conference. The first round games will be held at campus sites on March 6. The quarterfinal games were held at campus sites on March 9. The semifinal and final rounds were held March 15 and 17 at Hunt Arena of University of Wisconsin-River Falls, the highest remaining seed in the tournament.
Bids
Automatic Bids
- Commonwealth Coast Conference champion: Western New England Golden Bears (1st appearance)
- Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion: Gustavus Adolphus Golden Gusties (17th appearance^)
- New England Hockey Conference champion: Elmira Soaring Eagles (18th appearance)
- New England Small College Athletic Conference champion: Middlebury Panthers (19th appearance^^)
- Northern Collegiate Hockey Association champion: Adrian Bulldogs (8th appearance)
- State University of New York Athletic Conference champion: Cortland Red Dragons (1st appearance)
- United Collegiate Hockey Conference champion: Nazareth Golden Flyers (3rd appearance)
At-Large Bids
Pool B (Teams from non-AQ conferences)
- Wisconsin-River Falls Falcons – WIAC* (15th appearance)
Pool C (Teams from all conferences)
- Amherst Mammoths – NESCAC (9th appearance)
- Hamilton Continentals – NESCAC (2nd appearance)
- Plattsburgh Cardinals – SUNYAC (19th appearance)
^^ = Middlebury appeared in the 2 AWCHA tournaments that predated the NCAA tournament
^ = Augsburg & Gustavus each appeared in 1 of 2 AWCHA tournaments that predated the NCAA tournament
* = WIAC did not receive an automatic bid with only five teams, making them a pool B conference
Misc.
- Eight of the eleven schools who earned bids appeared in the previous NCAA tournament.
- This is the 12th of an active 14 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance streak for Plattsburgh.
- This is the 5th of an active 7 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance streak for UW-River Falls.
- This is the 4th of 5 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances for Gustavus.
- This is the 4th of 5 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances for Middlebury.
- This is the 3rd of an active 5 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance streak for Nazareth.
- This is the 2nd of an active 4 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance streak for Amherst.
- The NESCAC earns multiple bids for the fourth straight tournament.
- The NCAA’s bracket included a potential quarterfinal flight (which came to fruition) for the second-straight time by choice in order to try to protect bracket integrity.
- Shockingly, a flight was not created to separate the #1 and #3 seeds in the quarterfinal round, an unprecedented lack of bracket integrity.
- This is the first time in the history of the Division III women’s national tournament that all four Frozen Four teams had not appeared in the previous tournament’s Frozen Four.
- UWRF becomes the 11th school to host the Frozen Four, and the only the third #1 overall seed to come from the West.
Seeding (Determined by Pairwise Rankings)
- UW-River Falls (28-0-0)
- Plattsburgh (22-4-1)
- Gustavus (22-4-0)
- Amherst (21-3-2)
- Adrian (27-2-0)
- Middlebury (16-6-4)
- Cortland (20-5-2)
- Hamilton (15-6-6)
- Nazareth (22-5-1)
- Elmira (20-7-1)
- Western New England (17-7-3)
Results
First Round
Held at campus sites
-Chip Kenyon ’85 Arena- Middlebury, VT
-Sage Rink- Clinton, NY
-Alumni Arena- Cortland, NY
Quarterfinals
Held at campus sites
-Orr Rink- Amherst, MA
-Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena- Plattsburgh, NY
-Arrington Ice Arena- Adrian, MI
-Hunt Arena- River Falls, WI
Semifinals
Hosted by UW-River Falls: Hunt Arena- River Falls, WI
Championship
Hosted by UW-River Falls: Hunt Arena- River Falls, WI
2024 NCAA Division III Women’s Ice Hockey National Champion Wisconsin-River Falls Falcons
Bracket
Tournament Notes
- In its 15th NCAA tournament appearance, UW-River Falls wins its first ever national championship as a program.
- After 21 consecutive champions from the East region, UWRF brings home the second consecutive national title for the West region, following Gustavus in 2023.
- After a Cinderella-like run, Elmira finishes as national runner-up for the fifth time in program history, falling to 3-5 in national title games.
- River Falls becomes the first west team to host since 2019, when St. Thomas did so, and becomes the first west team to win it all on home ice.
- Adrian reaches its third Frozen Four in program history, and first since 2019.
- Middlebury reaches its tenth NCAA Frozen Four in program history, first since its national title in 2022.
- Gustavus and River Falls, as the #3 and #1 seeds, controversially meet in the quarterfinal round for their record 10th all-time NCAA Tournament matchup.
- River Falls becomes the first National Champion to defeat the defending champs (Gustavus) en route to their own title since RIT defeated Norwich in the 2012 National Championship game.
- Plattsburgh fails to reach the national semifinals, after doing so for the previous ten completed tournaments.
- With UWRF reaching the title game, 6 of the previous 7 national title games have featured 1 west team, after having just one western championship game appearance in the first 14 NCAA title games.
Statistics
Skaters
Top Scorers |
||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Team | Pos. | Yr. | GP | G | A | P | +/- | PIM | SOG |
| Alex Hantge | UW-River Falls | F | Sr. | 3 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 7 |
| Sabrina Kim | Middlebury | D | Jr. | 3 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 6 |
| Tia Lascellle | Adrian | F | So. | 2 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 9 |
| Kate Flynn | Middlebury | F | Fr. | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 13 |
| Aubrey Nelvin | UW-River Falls | F | Sr. | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 10 |
| Emma Bradbury | Elmira | F | So. | 4 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 11 |
| Emily Lenzen | Elmira | F | Sr. | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 8 |
| Une Bjelland | Adrian | F | 5th | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -2 | 0 | 6 |
| Maya Roy | Adrian | D | Sr. | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| Madison Lavergne | UW-River Falls | F | So. | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Avery McInerny | Middlebury | F | So. | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 8 |
Goaltending
Top Goaltenders (minimum 110 minutes played) |
|||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Team | Yr. | GP | W | L | SA | GA | GAA | SV% | SO | TOI |
| Sophia Will | Middlebury | So. | 3 | 2 | 1 | 71 | 1 | 0.33 | .986 | 2 | 178:18 |
| Jordan O'Connor | UW-River Falls | Sr. | 3 | 3 | 0 | 61 | 4 | 1.33 | .934 | 0 | 179:58 |
| Chloe Beaubien | Elmira | 5th | 4 | 3 | 1 | 136 | 6 | 1.45 | .956 | 1 | 248:30 |
| Michaela O'Brien | Adrian | 5th | 2 | 1 | 1 | 66 | 4 | 2.00 | .939 | 0 | 120:00 |
| Teagan Brown | Hamilton | Fr. | 2 | 1 | 1 | 63 | 5 | 2.40 | .921 | 0 | 123:47 |
All-Tournament Team
- F: Madison Lavergne: UW-River Falls
- F: Claire Meeder- Elmira
- F: Maddie McCollins- UW-River Falls (MVP)
- D: MaKenna Aure- UW-River Falls
- D: Madi Morton- Elmira
- G: Chloe Beaubien- Elmira
