INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Committee announced today the field of 11 teams that will compete in the 25th National Collegiate Women’s Ice Hockey Championship.
The top five teams are seeded into the bracket, with the top four seeds hosting the regional competition. Regional semifinals will be played on March 12 with the regional finals taking place on March 14. The winning team from each regional final will advance to the 2026 NCAA Women’s Frozen Four on March 20 and 22 at Pegula Ice Arena in University Park, Pennsylvania with Penn State serving as host.
Five conferences were awarded automatic bids for the 2026 tournament. The remaining six teams were selected at-large. The automatic qualifiers are Penn State (Atlantic Hockey America) Quinnipiac (ECAC Hockey), UConn (Hockey East), Franklin Pierce (New England Women’s Hockey Alliance) and Ohio State (Western Collegiate Hockey Alliance). The teams selected at-large are Minnesota, Minnesota Duluth, Northeastern, Princeton, Wisconsin and Yale. Franklin Pierce is the only team in the field making their first tournament appearance.
Ohio State enters the tournament as the No. 1 seed and will host and play the winner of the regional semifinal on Thursday in the Ohio State Ice Rink between Yale and Minnesota Duluth.
Wisconsin, the No. 2 seed, will host and play the winner of the regional semifinal between Quinnipiac and Franklin Pierce which will be held Thursday at LaBahn Arena. Penn State enters the tournament as the No. 3 seed and will match-up against the winner of Thursday’s regional semifinal between UConn and Princeton at Pegula Ice Arena. Minnesota the No. 4 seed, will host Northeastern the No. 5 seed, on March 14 in a regional final at Ridder Arena. All game times will are posted on NCAA.com.
Both national semifinal games will be broadcast on Friday, March 20. The first semifinal game will air on ESPN+ at 4 p.m. eastern time with the second semifinal game also being broadcast on ESPN+ at 7:30 p.m. eastern time. The national championship game will take place at 4 p.m. eastern time, Sunday, March 22 on ESPNU.
The 2025 championship was played in Minneapolis, Minnesota with Wisconsin capturing its eighth National Championship by virtue of a 4-3 win in overtime over Ohio State in a rematch of the 2023 and 2024 Women’s Frozen Four Championship game.
For more information regarding the championship, log on to NCAA.com.
