Date: Thursday, October 5, 2000

HOCKEY TEAM TO JOIN NESCAC BEGINNING WITH 2001-02 SEASON

MEDFORD – The Tufts University hockey team, currently a member of the ECAC’s Northeast Division, will join the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) League effective with the 2001-02 season. The move was officially accepted at the ECAC Fall Convention on Cape Cod this week.

Tufts University is a charter member of the NESCAC, which was founded in 1971. At that time, the university did not have a varsity hockey program. When hockey returned to Tufts as a varsity sport in 1986, the team joined the ECAC North Division and has been a member of that league (which has been modified into the ECAC Central and then the ECAC Northeast) in the years since. Tufts will play in the ECAC Northeast for one more season.

The NESCAC Hockey League is part of the ECAC’s East Division, though NESCAC standings and statistics are kept separately. Tufts will play one game apiece against NESCAC and ECAC East opponents (19 total), with each counting towards their conference record. However, in the post-season, the NESCAC holds its own conference championship tournament among its top seven teams.

The move means a big step up in level of play and travel for the Tufts program.

"Clearly, it is the premier Division Three league in the country," head coach Brian Murphy said. "The last six National Champions have come from the NESCAC/ECAC East league (Norwich in 2000, Middlebury from 1995-99). We’ll have to adjust quickly, but I think we’ll be able to do it. It’s where we belong and we’re glad it happened."

Tufts has been one of the more successful teams in the ECAC Northeast the past few seasons. Last year they were 9-3-1 in league games (13-10-1 overall) and advanced to the playoff semi-finals. The team has played NESCAC opponents such as Colby, Wesleyan and Connecticut College in recent seasons, but with little success. During the 1994-95 season, when Murphy was captain of the team, Tufts beat NESCAC foes Connecticut College, Trinity, Wesleyan and Amherst.

"We’ll take some lumps from some teams in the short term, but I hope we can contend for one of the seven playoff spots right away," Murphy said. "We have some good young players here and we need to continue working hard on and off the ice. We’ll be playing in front of bigger crowds in better rinks, so we’re all very excited about it."

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