For Immediate Release
Contact Dave Geringer, Sports Information Director, (508) 990-9651  [log in to unmask]
Sunday, March 4, 2007				 

UMASS DARTMOUTH TO PLAY MIDDLEBURY OR FREDONIA SATURDAY

NEW BEDFORD, MA–The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s hockey team has achieved another first.

The Corsairs are the first team representing the Eastern College Athletic Conference Northeast to earn a first round bye in the NCAA Division III Championships. The Corsairs will play the winner of Wednesday’s first round game between the State University of New York at Fredonia and Middlebury in a quarterfinal game Saturday. Fredonia upset Plattsburgh State in Saturday’s State University of New York Athletic Conference championship game at Plattsburgh, while Middlebury defeated host Bowdoin in the New England Small College Athletic Conference championship game Sunday. 

Oswego State and Manhattanville also earned first round byes in the East. Oswego State, the SUNYAC regular season champ, will host Norwich of the ECAC East after both teams earned at-large berths. Manhattanville, the champions of the ECAC West, earned the NCAA’s Pool B bid, which goes to a team representing a conference that does not automatically qualify for the NCAAs. The Valiants will host Babson, which earned the ECAC East’s automatic berth.

Three teams advanced in the Western bracket. Bethel, the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion, will visit Wisconsin-River Falls, which earned the lone Western at-large berth. The winner will visit Northern Collegiate Hockey Association champion St. Norbert.


UMASS DARTMOUTH HOCKEY