ELMIRA, N.Y. — After reaching the NCAA Division III Quarterfinals a year ago, the Elmira College women’s ice hockey team will begin the 2017-18 campaign as the country’s fifth-ranked team according to the U.S. College Hockey Online (USCHO) preseason poll. The Soaring Eagles, who received 91 points in the poll, are the only United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) affiliate to begin the season with a national ranking.
Elmira posted an 18-6-4 overall record with a 14-2-2 mark inside league play during the 2016-17 season and returns the bulk of its roster from a season ago. EC’s top eight point-getters are back for the upcoming season, including five skaters that produced 20-plus points. Starting goalie Kelcey Crawford ’18 is also back between the pipes for the Purple and Gold, after ending her junior season with the nation’s fifth-best goals-against average (1.21) and save percentage (.951).
Plattsburgh State claimed all 15 first-place votes to en route to the No. 1 preseason ranking, after winning the 2017 NCAA Division III Championship. The national runner-up, Adrian College, was picked second in the preseason poll, followed by No. 3 Norwich University and No. 4 University of Wisconsin-River Falls.
Middlebury College checked in at No. 6 in the poll, while Gustavus Adolphus, who ended the 2016-17 season ranked third, will begin the upcoming year with a No. 7 ranking. Lake Forest College, Amherst College and the University of St. Thomas round out the top-10 poll in that order.
Of the nine other ranked teams in this year’s poll, Elmira will face four of them with the potential of a fifth. Elmira could play top-ranked Plattsburgh State on two occasions on November 26 and January 8 at the Cardinal-Panther Classic and East-West Hockey Classic, respectively. The four ranked opponents EC is guaranteed to face are No. 2 Adrian (Jan. 7), No. 3 Norwich (Jan. 20), No. 6 Middlebury (Nov. 25), and No. 9 Amherst (Dec. 9 and Dec. 10).
The fifth-ranked Soaring Eagles open the 2017-18 campaign on Saturday, November 4, when they travel to Central New York to face the Lakers of Oswego State. The puck is set to drop at the Marano Campus Center Arena in Oswego, New York.
Rank Team (1st-Place Votes) Record Points Last Poll
1 Plattsburgh (15) 28-1-1 150 1
2 Adrian 28-3-0 129 2
3 Norwich 23-7-1 99 4
4 Wisconsin-River Falls 26-3-0 98 5
5 Elmira 18-6-4 91 6
6 Middlebury 19-7-2 80 7
7 Gustavus Adolphus 19-7-3 68 3
8 Lake Forest 21-6-1 32 9
9 Amherst 14-8-5 30 10
10 St. Thomas 14-11-4 15 8
