INDIANAPOLIS — The National Collegiate Women’s Ice Hockey Committee announced today the field of 11 teams that will compete in the 24th National Collegiate Women’s Ice Hockey Championships.
The top five teams are seeded into the bracket, with the top four seeds hosting the regional competition. Regional semifinals will be played March 13 with the regional finals March 15. The winning team from each regional final will advance to the 2025 NCAA Women’s Frozen Four on March 21 and 23 at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Minnesota with Minnesota serving as host.
Five conferences were awarded automatic bids for the 2025 tournament. The remaining six teams were selected at-large. The automatic qualifiers are Penn State, Cornell, Boston University, Sacred Heart and Wisconsin. The teams selected at-large are Clarkson, Colgate, Minnesota, Minnesota Duluth, Ohio State and St. Lawrence. Sacred Heart is the only team in the field making their first tournament appearance while Boston U. is making their first appearance since 2015.
Wisconsin enters the tournament as the No. 1 seed and will host and play the winner of the regional semifinal on Thursday in the LaBahn Arena between Clarkson and Boston U. Ohio State, the No. 2 seed, will host and play the winner of the regional semifinal between Penn State and St. Lawrence which will be held Thursday at Ohio State Ice Rink.
Cornell enters the tournament as the No. 3 seed and will match-up against the winner of Thursday’s regional semifinal between Minnesota Duluth and Sacred Heart at Lynah Rink. Minnesota the No. 4 seed, will host Colgate the No. 5 seed, on March 15 in a regional final at Ridder Arena. All game times will be updated and posted on NCAA.com.
Both national semifinal games will be broadcast Friday, March 21. The first semifinal game will air on ESPN+ at 5 p.m. Eastern time with the second semifinal game also being broadcast on ESPN+ at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time.
The national championship game will take place at 4 p.m. Eastern time, Sunday, March 23 on ESPNU. The 2024 championship was played in Durham, New Hampshire with Ohio State capturing the title by virtue of a 1-0 win over Wisconsin in a rematch of the 2023 Women’s Frozen Four Championship game.
For more information regarding the championship, log on to www.ncaa.com, or contact: Caleb Kolby, Assistant Director of Championships and Alliances, 317-917-6180
