By COURTNEY LEWIS
PLATTSBURGH — Plattsburgh State could be heading west in its hunt for a third national title in four years.
But first, the Cardinals, who received an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Women's Ice Hockey Championship Monday, have to get through the first round. They'll host Norwich at 3 p.m. Saturday. The winner will face Elmira or Trinity in the semifinals. Wisconsin-River Falls visits Gustavus Adolphus in another first-round matchup Saturday, and the winner of that game will host the championship weekend March 19-20. Amherst snagged the first-round bye.
"Obviously we're happy to be at home and happy to be playing," Plattsburgh State coach Kevin Houle said. "We certainly thought we'd be playing, we just weren't sure where we'd fall in the seeding. If you look at the whole year, I think it would have been tough to put us any lower than the second seed. Then it's a question of, do they take four or five teams (from the East Region)?"
Five teams receive automatic bids for winning their conference championships, and the other two are selected by the Division III Women's Ice Hockey Committee. Trinity was the other at-large selection, giving the East five teams and the West two. This will be the first time the championship is hosted by a Western team.
Typically when there's a 5-2 split, the semifinals and final are held in the East and hosted by the top seed, which has a bye in the first round.
But in 2007 the committee instituted a policy that the championship must be be held in the West at least once every four years. Plus, Amherst has a small arena, and Houle said the Lord Jeffs wouldn't have been able to host the semis and final anyway.
The way the bracket breaks down this year, the NCAA will have to fly three Eastern teams out for the semifinals — something it has avoided in the past.
"I'm sure it was a tough decision. How could you leave certain (Eastern) teams home or give someone a bye that's the fifth or sixth seed in the tournament?" Houle said. "But now you've got three teams flying. So I'm not sure exactly what their rationale was. But it worked out well for the Eastern teams, I think."
Amherst is the defending champion. Plattsburgh State won titles in 2007 and 2008 but was eliminated in the first round last year.
Norwich, a third-year program, made the tournament for the second straight year by winning the ECAC East. The Cadets were clipped by Elmira, 3-2, in last year's first round.
Plattsburgh State entered the postseason riding Division III's longest unbeaten streak but was knocked off by Elmira in Sunday's ECAC West championship game. Houle wasn't satisfied with the Cardinals' play during their semifinal win over Utica either.
"It's definitely something we need to work on, get back to playing consistent hockey — not turning it on at certain times," Houle said. "At times against Elmira, we did play well. We had lots of pressure and we had some good opportunities. Looking back at the game, we didn't give up a lot of opportunities, but part of that could have been them playing with the lead and concentrating on not making mistakes (instead of) creating offense.
"We need to be more consistent, and we can't wait until we're down two goals to start playing."
2010 NCAA Division III
Women's Ice Hockey Championship
March 13
First round
Wisc.-River Falls (20-3-6) at Gustavus Adolphus (21-4-2), 2 p.m. (CST)
Trinity (21-4-2) at Elmira (22-4-1), 3 p.m.
Norwich (18-5-5) at Plattsburgh State (23-2-2), 3 p.m.
Bye: Amherst (21-2-4)
March 19
Semifinals at UWRF/GAC winner
UWRF/GAC vs. Amherst
Trinity/Elmira vs. Norwich/Plattsburgh State
March 20
Championship game and third-place game
E-mail Courtney Lewis at: clewis@pressrepublican.com
