TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE BEGINNING AT 9 AM (CT) ON TUESDAY 3/10 AT THE SITE LINKED HERE.
TICKETS ARE $11 FOR ADULTS, $6 FOR STUDENTS AND SENIORS, CHILDREN 2-UNDER FREE.
ONLY NCAA PASSES ACCEPTED. ALL PATRONS (INCLUDING AUGSBURG FACULTY, STAFF AND ALUMNI) MUST PAY FOR ADMISSION.
ADMISSION FOR AUGSBURG STUDENTS (WITH AUGSBURG STUDENT ID SHOWN) WILL BE COVERED BY THE AUGSBURG ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT.

MINNEAPOLIS -- For the second straight year, the Augsburg University women's hockey team will compete in the NCAA Division III National Tournament, and will open with a first-round game against Elmira College (N.Y.) this Saturday, March 14, at 3 p.m. at Ed Saugestad Rink.

Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular-season champions for the second straight year, the 21-4-1 Auggies are the No. 5 seed in the 13-team NCAA Division III bracket. Elmira (19-5-2) won the United Collegiate Hockey Conference title with a 4-1 upset of top-seed Nazareth (Pa.) on Saturday. The Soaring Eagles are the No. 12-seed in the tournament, finishing 16th in the pre-tournament NCAA Division III National Power Index (NPI). In the lastest Division III national polls, Augsburg was ranked No. 4 by USCHO.com and No. 3 by D-III Hockey News.com, while Elmira received votes in both polls. This will be the first-ever meeting between Augsburg and Elmira.

Saturday's Augsburg-Elmira winner will face the winner of Saturday's contest between No. 4-seed Amherst College (Mass., 19-2-6) and the No. 13-seeded College of Saint Benedict (16-7-4), the MIAC's playoff champions, on Saturday, March 21. If Amherst wins, the game would be in Amherst, Mass., and if Saint Benedict wins, the game would be at either Augsburg or Elmira. Augsburg and Saint Benedict join No. 7-seed Hamline University (20-5-1) as MIAC teams in the national tournament, the most ever for the conference.

Under second-year head coach Elizabeth Bauer, the Auggies have produced a 45-8-1 record, including a 31-4-1 record in MIAC play. Augsburg captured the MIAC's regular-season and playoff titles last season, earning a trip to the Division III national semifinals in River Falls, Wis., finishing as co-third-place honorees.

This season, Augsburg has outscored its opponents by an 83-41 margin, with five shutout wins. Elmira finished second in the UCHC regular-season standings (11-2-1 in conference play), outscoring their opponents by a 93-36 margin with eight shutout wins under third-season head coach Greg Haney.

The NCAA national tournament berth is the second in the 31-season history of Augsburg's women's hockey team. The Auggies competed in the first Division III national playoff in the 1999-2000 season, sponsored by the American Women's College Hockey Alliance, losing to Middlebury (Vt.) in a two-game series in Boston, Mass.