Wisconsin Badgers
MADISON, WI (WSAU) — The defending national champion Badger women’s hockey team has been voted #1 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine women’s college hockey poll.
Wisconsin received 18 of 19 first-place votes and 189 ballot points. Northeastern University was slotted second, receiving the other first-place vote.
Three other WCHA schools cracked the top five. Ohio State ranked 3rd, while MSU Mankato and the University of Minnesota tied for 4th.
Another Big Ten school, Penn State, was ranked #10. The Nittany Lions compete in the College Hockey America league.
Unlike many other college sports, the USA Today USA Hockey Magazine women’s college hockey poll only ranks the top ten, not the top 25.
The Badger women’s hockey team drops the puck on the 2021-’22 season in ten days- Friday, September 24th, against Lindenwood of Missouri. WCHA play opens October 9th against St. Cloud State.
Wisconsin won the 2020-’21 national championship with a 2-1 OT win over Northeastern.
The ’21-’22 season will also mark the first year of an expanded WCHA schedule with one new school in the fold. That’s the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN- who was “involuntarily removed” from the Division III MIAC because many of their teams were consistently winning league titles and defeating other schools by wide margins, particularly football. The Tommies then got a waiver to move all of their athletic teams directly to Division I without a layover period in Division II.
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