Elmira, NY — The Elmira College women’s ice hockey team concluded the regular season with a perfect 18-0-0 conference record, claiming the outright ECAC West regular season title for the first time since 2008-09. As the regular season champs, Elmira enters the ECAC West Conference Tournament as the top seeded team, guaranteeing the Soaring Eagles home ice throughout the playoffs. Ticket prices for the semifinals and finals, both of which will be played at the Murray Athletic Center Ice Arena in Pine Valley, NY, will be $5 for adults and $3 for students.
At 23-1-1, Elmira ended the regular season as the unanimous No. 1 ranked team in the country according to both the U. S. College Hockey Online (USCHO) and D3hockey.com national polls and was the top ranked team in the East Region as per the first NCAA Regional Rankings.
The 2014-15 ECAC West Tournament will be the first time Elmira has hosted the conference tournament semifinals and finals since 2008-09, a year that the Soaring Eagles claimed their sixth tournament title in program history. In total, the Elmira women have seven ECAC West Conference championships to their name, with the last title being clinched in the 2009-10 season.
Elmira has hosted four ECAC West Conference Tournaments throughout their 14-year history, this year being the fifth time. In the previous four tournaments played at the Murray Athletic Center Ice Arena, the Soaring Eagles have skated away with the conference title each time and have reached the NCAA Tournament Championship game in each of those four years, winning National Championships in 2001-02 and 2002-03.
The ECAC West Conference Tournament begins this weekend as teams seeded three through six will square off in the quarterfinals. Elmira and second seeded Plattsburgh State received byes in the quarterfinals and will play their next game on Saturday, March 7th, with Elmira facing the lowest remaining seed and Plattsburgh taking on the highest remaining seed. The Soaring Eagles will play in the first of two semifinal games on March 7th at 3:00 p.m. while Plattsburgh will play in the late game at 7:00 p.m.
