For a fifth-straight season, the University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team is going to the NCAA Tournament.

The Bulldogs officially punched the program's 16th ticket to the big dance Sunday morning after the NCAA's selection show revealed UMD will travel to Ithaca, N.Y. to play Sacred Heart University in the NCAA First Round Thursday with a 6:00 p.m. CDT puck drop at Lynah Rink. 

UMD will face a non-Western Collegiate Hockey Association opponent in the NCAA tournament opening round for a fifth consecutive season. Overall, the Bulldogs own a 21-13-2 record and have gone 3-12-0 against teams in the NCAA tournament.  The winner of the Bulldog-Pioneer showdown Thursday will face third-seeded Cornell University on Saturday in the NCAA Regional Final.

 

"Wow, so excited for our student athletes, they worked really, really hard all season long, said Bulldog head coach Laura Schuler, who has now been a apart of six total UMD NCAA Tournament runs. "Our goal has always been to be better than we were the day before, and that mentality, I think has helped us to be able to be where we're at right now. I can't say enough to about all of our our student athletes, our support staff, our coaching staff, our administration, everyone's been so amazing and everyone's been working so hard behind the scenes to be able to help get us to this point, too."

This will mark the fourth-ever NCAA First Round game for UMD in the NCAA Tournament, which expanded to 11 teams three seasons ago.  All-time, UMD is 21-10 in the NCAA postseason, including 9-5 in NCAA First Round/Quarterfinals and marks the 16th time UMD has been invited to the NCAA Tournament in program history.

The run of five NCAA Tournaments consecutively is the second longest streak in Bulldogs history, having started in 2021. The longest was a seven-season string from 2005-2011.

This also marks the fifth NCAA Tournament appearances for graduate forward Clara Van Wieren and fifth-year defenseman Nina Jobst-Smith, who become the first-ever UMD players to have skated in five NCAA Tournaments. Five other players will skate in their fourth NCAA Tournaments – Hanna Baskin, Mary Kate O'Brien, Jenna Lawry and Brenna Fuhrman. As a program, UMD now has 26 total players in program history who have skated in four – or more – consecutive NCAA Tournaments.