D-III Women’s Week in Review: MIAC Madness, Wildcats Make Program History, & The Conference Playoffs Are Here!

MIAC Madness: Auggies take the regular season, Pipers & Gusties Split, & the Bennies Sweep in Style!

Auggies sweep Saint Mary’s, defend their MIAC regular-season title!

The Augsburg Auggies (21-3-1) swept Saint Mary’s this past weekend, winning 3-1 & 2-1, securing them the MIAC regular season title after Hamline split the weekend with Gustavus. The Auggies finished conference play with a record of 15-2-1 (44 points), while Hamline finished 14-3-1 (43 points), setting them up for a first-round bye and a semifinal matchup against the winner of Gustavus & Bethel who play this Wednesday.

Augsburg’s highlight performance of the weekend was their defenseman Nora Stepan’s two-goal-game on Saturday, scoring the winner just over seven minutes into the 2nd period. Auggie goaltender Marissa Paaske made 16 saves in Friday’s victory, while Kayla Simonson made 19 on Saturday.

Augsburg has compiled a record of 44-7-2 in HC Elizabeth Bauer’s first two seasons at the helm after the departure of longtime coach Michelle McAteer (2010-2024). Bauer’s Auggies are looking to make a return back to the Frozen Four as they fell last season in the semifinals against the eventual back-to-back National Champion #1 Wisconsin-River Falls. This season the Auggies have faced a few bumps in the road including a few rescheduled games due to various circumstances, but they’ve finished on top once again and find themselves in an interesting position as they likely will be setup for a rematch from last season where they defeated Gustavus 3-2 in overtime in the MIAC title game.

Despite the Gustie’s record of 13-10-2, they’re still dangerous as they split with Hamline, but they’ve played the hardest schedule in Division III this season and just haven’t been able to put it together on a consistent basis. It’s the MIAC, anything can happen!

Hamline & Gustavus battle to a series split, Hamline comes up one point short of MIAC title

As discussed briefly, the Pipers & Gusties battled to a series split, which cost Hamline the MIAC regular season title. Despite the Gusties down season of 13-10-2, they’re still very capable of doing big things, including winning the MIAC, which would throw the entire at-large bid situation for a whirl as Augsburg is essentially a lock, while Hamline is a near-lock, but not guaranteed.

The Gusties finished the season 7-3-0 in their last ten games after falling below .500 in the middle of the season for the first time in a very long time, if ever. Hamline finished the season 7-2-1 and despite the series split, Hamline was heavily outshot in both games this past weekend. Gustavus led in shots 37-24 & 35-16, but struggled in the goaltending category on Friday.

Gusties host the Royals this Wednesday looking to set up a date with Augsburg as they’re 1-1-0 against the Auggies this season, winning 2-1 & losing 3-2.

Hamline hosts Saint Benedict who they tied 2-2 (won shootout) & won 5-1.

Saint Benedict sweeps the Cobbers, setting themselves up in the 3-seed for a date with Hamline

The main highlight of Saint Benedict’s weekend was securing the 3-seed in the MIAC tournament. Head Coach Lindsay Macy has turned the program around in her third season at the helm of the Bennies, finishing the regular season 14-7-4, the most wins in program history since the 1999-00 where they finished 14-12-1.

The biggest implication from this sweep was avoiding the “play-in” game on Wednesday as they finished tied with Gustavus at 32 points, but held the tiebreaker.

Look out for the Bennies to potentially shock the MIAC and take down Hamline who’s been rolling for most of the season like their counterparts in Augsburg. They visit Hamline this Saturday for a 3pm CT puck drop.

Johnson & Wales makes program history, finishing the regular season 13-11-1

Johnson & Wales is a relatively new program on the women’s side of things, establishing in the 2015-2016 season while the men’s program was established in 1997. Prior to this season, the Wildcats won 11 games in 2021-22 and won 10+ games on two other occasions. Fourth year Head Coach Maddy Santore has really turned things around in Providence, RI after a few rough opening seasons going 12-34-5 in her first two years.

This season, JWU made great strides in the CNE, finishing 10-7-1, securing the 3-seed where they’ll host Curry College (10-13-2) in the quarterfinals. The Wildcats also found themselves in some close losses to solid teams, losing 3-2 in overtime to #7 Endicott (18-3-2) & 2-1 vs Western New England (17-7-1). Their most recent win is arguably their biggest, a 4-2 win over Western New England who finished 2nd in the league to Endicott in the regular season.

JWU has had solid goaltending all season, their three goaltenders sit with these numbers:

Katelyn Cardoso
14 starts (8-6-0)
1.98 GAA
.926 save %

Avery Hall
9 starts (4-4-1)
1.97 GAA
.943 save %

Jaelynn Bucinell
2 starts (1-1)
1.01 GAA
.941 save %

This past weekend as mentioned, JWU defeated the Golden Bears 4-2 at home. Powerplays were the story in this game as four PP goals were scored. Getting on the board first was Allyson Barry of JWU, scoring on the PP at the 6:20 mark of the opening period. We would head to the 2nd period with a 1-0 JWU lead, but it wouldn’t last long as Barry scored her 2nd goal of the game, also on the PP a quick 3:14 into the period, making it 2-0 JWU. Three minutes later, JWU tripled the lead from the first, scoring their 3rd goal was Ava Morgan making it a commanding three-goal lead.

Western New England finally got on the board with just under two minutes left in the 2nd period, Mikayla Mrzywka scored the third PP goal of the game, making it 3-1 JWU.

In the 3rd period, WNE jumped on the powerplay once again which they capitalized on. Maddie Pope cut the lead to one, making it 3-2 JWU with 17 minutes left in the game. The Golden Bears run wouldn’t be enough in the end as the Wildcats added a fourth goal in the final minute from Marissa Lafferty, securing the signature win for the Golden Bears. Avery Hall made 28 saves on 30 shots for Johnson & Wales.

The Wildcats next game is a home game against Curry College in the CNE Quarterfinals, if they win, they’ll visit Western New England in the semifinals, looking to reach their first ever NCAA tournament.

Here’s a look at each respective Conference Playoff Bracket!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out our “Standings” tab on diiihockeynews.com after each weekend to see the updated brackets! Our “Scores” tab will have all playoff scores of course!