SOUTH BEND, Ind. – (January 15, 2019) – The top five in the American Collegiate Hockey Association Women's Division-I rankings remain unchanged as Adrian College continued its hold of the top spot in the eighth ranking period of the 2018-19 season. The unbeaten Bulldogs (15-0-1) keep their top spot for the seventh consecutive week as they will as they will take on Robert Morris University (Ill.) this weekend.  

Liberty University (17-1-2) held their No. 2 spot with two wins over the University of Massachusetts (4-2 and 6-1) and Lindenwood University – Belleville (10-3-3) maintained its No. 3 spot after a bye week. Michigan State University (10-3-0) held their No. 4 spot as they will start the new year with games against McKendree University, University of Denver, and Lindenwood University – Belleville. University of Colorado (15-2-0) again rounded out the top 5 after their bye week.

The only movement among the top 15 was University of Michigan eclipsing University of Minnesota at the 10 spot.

The Central Collegiate Women’s Hockey Association leads the way with all eight-member teams ranked, while the Western Women’s Collegiate Hockey League has three (of 7) of its member teams ranked, and the East Coast Women’s Hockey League has two (of 3) of its member teams ranked.

The computer ranking, along with the competition committee will determine the eight teams that qualify for the 2019 ACHA Women’s Division-I National Championships, which will include the following two automatic bids:

·       (CCWHA) Central Collegiate Women’s Hockey Association

·       (WWCHL) Western Women’s Collegiate Hockey League

A total of 23 teams are competing in Women’s Division-I this season, including one new team, Concordia University Ann Arbor.

The ACHA uses two computer rankings, Ranking A (Wins with goal differential of 7) and Ranking B (Wins with maximum goal differential of 1) to come up with an average of the two rankings. This is the first year we are only using computer rankings.

In its 19th season of action, there have been a total of nine schools that have won the ACHA Women’s Division-I National Championship:

·       Lindenwood (4 times)

·       Miami (3)

·       Liberty (2)

·       Michigan State (2)

·       Robert Morris (2)

·       Wisconsin (2)

·       Minnesota

·       Northeastern

·       St. Cloud State

The 2019 ACHA National Championships will be played at the Dr Pepper Arena in Frisco, Texas as well as additional Dr Pepper StarCenter facilities. The Dr Pepper Arena is home practice facility for the NHL Dallas Stars and houses the Stars' Executive Offices. The Dr Pepper StarCenters are the Stars-led community ice rinks throughout the DFW Metroplex.

More than 1,500 players from 72 teams across all five ACHA divisions—Men’s Division I, II, and III, and Women’s Divisions I and II — will converge upon the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area from March 21 through March 31, 2019, to compete in more than 100 games.

The ninth ranking of the regular season will be released on Tuesday, January 22, 2019.