The Gustavus women's hockey team, which earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by winning the MIAC Playoff with a 3-0 win over Bethel last Saturday, will travel to River Falls, Wisconsin this Friday, March 11 to play UW-River Falls at the Hunt Arena at 7:00 pm in a NCAA First Round game.

Tickets will be $8 for adults and $3 for students with an ID and seniors 62 years and older.  Children under 2 will be free.  Tickets can be purchased at Hunt Arena on Thursday during business hours (call (715) 425-4289 for details) or at the gate beginning at 6 pm on Friday.

This will be the eighth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance for the Gusties (21-3-3), who hosted the NCAA Women's Division III Hockey Championship last March.

The Falcons, 24-1-4 overall, earned one of the two at-large berths into the tourney. Norwich University (23-4-1) earned the other and received a first round bye. Other first round matchups have Middlebury (21-4-1) hosting Manhattanville (19-7-2) and Adrian (19-7-3) playing at Rochester Institute of Technology (24-1-2).

The site of the finals will be determined after the completion of the first round games. The semifinals will be played on Friday, March 18 with the championship and third place games to follow on Saturday, March 19.

This will be the third consecutive year that Gustavus and UW-River Falls have matched up in the first round of the NCAA Women's Hockey Championship, however it will be the first time that the game will be played in River Falls.  The Falcons defeated the Gusties 2-1 in St. Peter in 2009 and then went on the the NCAA Finals where they finished fourth.  Last year, Gustavus defeated UW-River Falls 2-0 in St. Peter and advanced to the finals where the Gusties finished fourth.