For Immediate Release
Contact Dave Geringer, Sports Information Director, (508) 990-9651  [log in to unmask]
Sunday, March 5, 2006					

UMASS DARTMOUTH TO PLAY SUNY GENESEO IN NCAA PLAYOFFS 

INDIANAPOLIS, IN– The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth hockey team will travel 400 miles to play its first-ever game in the NCAA Division III Men’s Hockey Tournament.

The Corsairs, seeded seventh in the Eastern Region, will visit the sixth-seeded State University of New York at Geneseo Wednesday evening, March 8th at 7:00 p.m. in a first round game in the NCAA Tournament. 

The Ice Knights earned an automatic bid to the NCAAs after winning the State University of New York Athletic Conference Tournament. Geneseo defeated Plattsburgh State in a best two of three game series for the title this weekend, winning each of the last two games by 4-3 scores after losing the opener Friday night, 4-1. The championship game was Sunday afternoon. They split their semi-final series against SUNY Fredonia, defeating the Blue Devils, 4-3, then losing 5-2. They won the series by winning a 20-minute mini-game, 1-0. All five of their playoff games were played at their campus rink, the 3500-seat Ira S. Wilson Arena, where they averaged approximately 2000 fans per playoff game. Geneseo finished the season with a 19-8-2 record.

UMass Dartmouth brings a 24-4-0 record and a 20-game winning streak, the longest in the nation, into Wednesday’s game. The Corsairs earned an automatic bid to the NCAAs by defeating Curry, 3-1 Saturday for the ECAC Northeast Conference championship at the Hetland Memorial Ice Arena.

The winner of Wednesday’s game will play at top-seeded Middlebury Saturday. The winner of that game will advance to the Final Four at Elmira March 18th and 19th.

UMASS DARTMOUTH HOCKEY