The Lake Forest College women's hockey team has reached the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time in program history and will play at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls in the quarterfinals at 2:00 Saturday afternoon.
The Foresters qualified for the NCAA Tournament by defeating visiting St. Norbert College 3-2 in overtime on Saturday in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association Slaats Cup Championship Game. Lake Forest was one of five teams in the nation to earn its league's automatic bid. The other three teams in the tournament, including River Falls, earned at-large berths.
Lake Forest is 17-5-3 overall this season and finished first in the NCHA standings with a conference record of 13-3-2. The Foresters were ranked eighth in the country in last week's D3hockey.com poll and 10th by USCHO.com.
River Falls finished first in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with a league mark of 8-2-2 and defeated the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, a fellow NCAA Tournament participant, 5-1 in the WIAC O'Brien Cup Final on Saturday. The Falcons, who were ranked fourth in both of last week's polls, are 21-4-3 overall and making their sixth consecutive and seventh overall trip to the NCAA Tourney.
Tickets will be available at Hunt Arena in River Falls, Wisconsin, at 1:00 p.m. The prices are $8 for adults and $4 for students (age 3 and up) and senior citizens.
The winner of Saturday's game will face the winner of the quarterfinal contest between defending NCAA champion Elmira College and host Norwich University in the semifinals on Friday, March 21. In other quarterfinal action, Plattsburgh State University will host Williams College and the University of St. Thomas will travel to Stevens Point. The NCAA Tournament semifinals, as well as the final on March 22, will be played at the site of the highest remaining seeded semifinalist.
