The 2019 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 twentieth time a national championship tournament at the Division III level had been held and was the eighteenth one sanctioned by the NCAA.
Format[]
Ten teams qualify for the single elimination tournament. This year's tournament field expanded by one team from the previous tournament held in 2018. The conference tournament champions of the CHC, MIAC, NCHA, NEHC, NESCAC, and NEWHL received automatic bids to the tournament. Four at-large bids were also selected, one guaranteed to a school from a non-automatic-qualifier conference. For the first time, the NCAA adopted the Pairwise system to select and seed teams for the NCAA tournament, rather than a committee selecting based off criteria. Pairwise is a set of rankings based on statistics and results from that season. This was done to help take the "human element" out of selections. The first round games were 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 16 at St. Thomas Ice Arena of the University of St. Thomas, the highest remaining seed in the tournament.
Bids[]
Automatic Bids[]
- Colonial Hockey Conference champion: Endicott Gulls (1st appearance)
- Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion: St. Thomas Tommies (6th appearance)
- New England Hockey Conference champion: Norwich Cadets (10th appearance)
- New England Small College Athletic Conference champion: Williams Ephs (3rd appearance^)
- Northeast Women's Hockey League champion: Plattsburgh Cardinals (15th appearance)
- Northern Collegiate Hockey Association champion: Adrian Bulldogs (5th appearance)
At-Large Bids[]
Pool B (Teams from non-AQ conferences)[]
- Elmira Soaring Eagles - UCHC* (15th appearance)
Pool C (Teams from all conferences)[]
- Hamline Pipers - MIAC (2nd appearance)
- Wisconsin-Eau Claire Blugolds - WIAC (2nd appearance)
- Wisconsin-River Falls Falcons - WIAC (11th appearance)
^ = Williams appeared in 1 of 2 AWCHA tournaments that predated the NCAA tournament
* = UCHC did not receive an automatic bid in its second season, making them a pool B conference
Misc.[]
- Six of the ten schools who earned bids appeared in the previous season's NCAA tournament.
- This is the 8th of an active 12 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance streak for Plattsburgh.
- This is the 7th of 9 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances for Elmira.
- This is the 4th of 5 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances for Adrian.
- This is the 3rd of 4 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances for Norwich.
- This is the 2nd of 4 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances for UW-Eau Claire.
- This is the 1st of an active 5 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance streak for UW-River Falls.
- Middlebury misses the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014.
- The MIAC gets two bids for the third consecutive season.
- The West region earns a record five teams into the field.
- As of 2023, this serves as Williams' last NCAA Tournament appearance.
- As of 2023, this serves as Hamline's last NCAA Tournament appearance.
- This was St. Thomas's last NCAA Tournament appearance at the D-III level, as they jumped to Division I in 2021.
- St. Thomas becomes the 9th school to host the Frozen Four, and was the only the second #1 overall seed to come from the West. (Gustavus in 2009 was the previous team, but did not host due to geography.)
- This year's selection committee consisted of:
- Crystal Lanning (chair) (UW-River Falls AD)
- Katie Boldvich (Colonial Hockey Conference and New England Hockey Conference commissioner)
- Jackie MacMillan (St. Scholastica head coach)
- Bill Mandigo (Middlebury head coach)
- Deborah Steward (William Smith AD)
Seeds (Determined by Pairwise Rankings)[]
- St. Thomas (24-1-2)
- Elmira (24-2-1)
- Plattsburgh (25-2-0)
- Hamline (21-3-3)
- Adrian (22-4-2)
- UW-River Falls (23-5-0)
- Williams (20-4-3)
- UW-Eau Claire (21-5-2)
- Norwich (21-5-2)
- Endicott (19-4-4)
Results[]
First Round[]
Held at campus sites
-Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena- Plattsburgh, NY
| Wednesday, March 6, 2019 5 PM ET |
|||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | OT | Final | |
| 10) Endicott | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 3) Plattsburgh | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
-Lansing Chapman Rink- Williamstown, MA
| Wednesday, March 6, 2019 7 PM ET |
||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| 9) Norwich | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 7) Williams | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Quarterfinals[]
Held at campus sites
-Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena- Plattsburgh, NY
| Saturday, March 9, 2019 3 PM ET |
||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| 7) Williams | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 3) Plattsburgh | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
-Murray Athletic Center Arena- Horseheads, NY
| Saturday, March 9, 2019 3 PM ET |
|||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | OT | Final | |
| 5) Adrian | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 2) Elmira | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
-TRIA Rink- St. Paul, MN
| Saturday, March 9, 2019 2 PM CT |
||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| 6) UW-River Falls | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 4) Hamline | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
-St. Thomas Ice Arena- Mendota Heights, MN
| Saturday, March 9, 2019 2 PM CT |
||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| 8) UW-Eau Claire | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 1) St. Thomas | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
Semifinals[]
Hosted by University of St. Thomas: St. Thomas Ice Arena- Mendota Heights, MN
| Friday, March 15, 2019 3 PM CT |
||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| 5) Adrian | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 3) Plattsburgh | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Friday, March 15, 2019 7 PM CT |
||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| 4) Hamline | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| 1) St. Thomas | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Third Place[]
Hosted by University of St. Thomas: St. Thomas Ice Arena- Mendota Heights, MN
| Saturday, March 16, 2019 3 PM CT |
||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| 5) Adrian | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 1) St. Thomas | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Championship[]
Hosted by University of St. Thomas: St. Thomas Ice Arena- Mendota Heights, MN
| Saturday, March 16, 2019 7 PM CT |
||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| 4) Hamline | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3) Plattsburgh | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
Bracket[]
Tournament Notes[]
- Plattsburgh wins its seventh NCAA national championship, most of all time.
- Plattsburgh wins its fourth national title in five seasons, the only school to accomplish the feat.
- Plattsburgh wins its second consecutive title away from home.
- Hamline finishes 2nd, the highest in program history, and becomes the third west team in four seasons to reach the title game.
- Adrian reaches its second Frozen Four in program history, finishing in 3rd place for the first time.
- St. Thomas reaches its second Frozen Four in program history, finishing in 4th place for the second time.
- Plattsburgh reaches its 8th consecutive Frozen Four.
- St. Thomas becomes the first non-neutral host school to not reach the championship game since Gustavus in 2010.
- Plattsburgh becomes the first team to win four games en route to a national title.
- The ten team format remains the same for four years. (Two completed tournaments)
Statistics[]
Skaters[]
| Player | Team | Pos. | Yr. | GP | G | A | P | +/- | PIM | SOG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annie Katonka | Plattsburgh | F | So. | 4 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 18 |
| Abby Brush | Plattsburgh | F | So. | 4 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| Bre Simon | Hamline | F | Jr. | 3 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 15 |
| Courtney Moriarty | Plattsburgh | F | Sr. | 4 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 20 |
| Nicole Unsworth | Plattsburgh | F | Fr. | 4 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 18 |
| Abby Brustad | Williams | F | Sr. | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 7 | |
| Meghan Halloran | Williams | F | So. | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 13 | |
| Jessica VonRuden | Adrian | F | Fr. | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 7 |
| Maggie Mitter | Adrian | F | Jr. | 3 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| Mackenzie Millen | Plattsburgh | F | Sr. | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 14 |
Goaltending[]
| Player | Team | Yr. | GP | W | L | SA | GA | GAA | SV% | SO | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kassi Abbott | Plattsburgh | Sr. | 4 | 4 | 0 | 79 | 6 | 1.50 | .924 | 1 | 240:37 |
| Jaela O'Brien | Hamline | Fr. | 3 | 2 | 1 | 79 | 5 | 1.67 | .937 | 1 | 180:00 |
| Denisa Jandova | Adrian | Fr. | 3 | 2 | 1 | 102 | 6 | 1.82 | .941 | 1 | 197:36 |
| Eryn Cooley | St. Thomas | Fr. | 2 | 0 | 2 | 56 | 4 | 2.04 | .929 | 0 | 117:48 |
| Chloe Heiting | Williams | Fr. | 2 | 1 | 1 | 69 | 9 | 3.06 | .913 | 0 | 117:36 |
All-Tournament Team[]
- F: Annie Katonka- Plattsburgh
- F: Maggie Mitter- Adrian
- F: Courtney Moriarty- Plattsburgh (MVP)
- D: Hannah Kiraly- Plattsburgh
- G: Kassi Abbott- Plattsburgh
- G: Jaela O'Brien- Hamline
