Maryville University Set Itself a New Standard At ACHA National Championships
The Maryville University women’s hockey team cleared a huge hurdle in its climb toward the top, but the Saints ended up one goal short of their ultimate goal.
Maryville, in its fifth season, finally got past the quarterfinals of the Division 1 ACHA National Championship and advanced to the title game before losing 2-1 in double overtime to Liberty on March 21 in St. Louis.
“There's nothing I can say that's going to repair the heartbreak that our girls felt and probably still do feel,” said Tom Lange, Maryville’s head coach. “But at the end of the day, I know they can look at themselves in the mirror and be proud of themselves and what they've accomplished.”
Maryville also had two other teams play at nationals, held over a two-week period in mid-March with most of the games at the Centene Community Ice Center in St. Louis. The Saints Men’s Division 1 team qualified for the fifth consecutive year, while the Men’s Division 2 team earned its first bid.
“You know, we started from zero to playing in the national championship, losing in double overtime to the No. 1 team in the country,” Lange said. “It was really a four-year period, because I don’t count the COVID year because we only played 10 games. So, the trajectory, we just kind of skyrocketed.”
Having Haley Beckett helped the team reach new heights this season. The freshman won the Women’s Division 1 Zoe Harris Award, which goes to the best player in the division each season. Beckett led D1 with 48 points and scored her team’s lone goal during the championship game.
By reaching the championship game, expectations have been raised for the Maryville women’s team, Lange said.
“The new standard is obviously we got to get in the final game and now we got to win it,” Lange said. “We want to claim that first championship. We don't want to be a runner-up or not make it.’
“The girls got this week off and next week they're back at the gym,” he said. “They held the second-place trophy. They want the big trophy now.”
The ACHA — the national association for non-NCAA college hockey in the U.S. — was founded in 1991 and features more than 461 college and university-affiliated teams representing 48 states and two Canadian provinces. The organization represents approximately 13,000 players.
This year’s national championships, co-hosted by the St. Louis Sports Commission and the NHL’s St. Louis Blues, featured players from 82 teams in five divisions — Men’s Division 1, 2, and 3 and Women’s Divisions 1 and 2. St. Louis also hosted nationals in 2022 and 2024, and will do so again in 2026, 2027 and 2028.
The Centene Community Ice Center is the practice facility for the St. Louis Blues and the home of Lindenwood University’s NCAA Division I men’s and women’s hockey programs. The Maryville University Hockey Center in nearby Chesterfield, Missouri, hosted ACHA overflow games and practices.
University of Nevada-Las Vegas won the Men’s 1 title with a 7-3 victory over Adrian, avenging a loss in last year’s title game.
Lindenwood defeated Montana State 4-1 to win its first Men’s 2 championship and Hope College defeated the Air Force Academy 6-3 for the Men's 3 title. Meanwhile, Sault College beat Assiniboine College 6-2 for the Women’s D2 crown.
Both Lindenwood’s current NCAA men’s and women’s teams began as club teams, with the women winning three consecutive national ACHA titles from 2008-10. However, Lindenwood is among many schools that have both NCAA and ACHA programs. In this year’s Women’s 2 semifinals, Sault College defeated Wisconsin, whose women’s varsity team won the NCAA national championship Sunday.
Gary Gardner, head coach of Lindenwood’s Men’s 2 national champions, said the ACHA offers numerous opportunities to play high-level hockey aside from NCAA programs.
“The hockey landscape, I think there’s about 60 Division I NCAA teams. There’s just not enough Division I scholarships or opportunities for the amount of kids that play hockey,” Gardner said.
“And there’s plenty of good hockey to go around outside the teams that provide scholarships,” he said. “That’s why the ACHA is a monster that’s growing every day. It’s a brand of hockey that I enjoy, and that I think a lot of people enjoy once they see it firsthand.”
The hockey programs at Maryville have more than just an on-ice impact, said John Hogan, men's ACHA D1 head coach and director of hockey at the university.
“We’ve got five teams with over 130 student-athletes,” said Hogan, who grew up in St. Louis, but later played club hockey at the University of Arizona, along with his twin brother. “They're all paying to go to school and playing the game because they love it. And this year we had three of our teams in the national tournament, which is really exciting.”
With five divisions, the ACHA offers something for players and teams of almost every level, Hogan said.
“That’s the lovely thing about the ACHA, it’s such a wide spectrum,” he said. “If you just want to do player dues and GoFundMe and be a D3 team with 15 or 16 guys on the team, and that’s your fraternity, that’s great.
“You get to play the game that you love.”
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.
Source: usahockey.com