UMD Women’s Hockey Draws Yale in First-Round of NCAA Tournament

This is the Bulldogs sixth-straight year they will skate in the national tournament.

March 8, 2026

Isaiah Wiita,

DULUTH, Minn.- The UMD women’s hockey team had to scoreboard watch to see if they would fill one of the 11 spots in the NCAA tournament.

On Sunday, the stars aligned for the Bulldogs as they heard their name called for the big dance.

UMD will face off against Yale in the first-round of the NCAA tournament.

This is the Bulldogs sixth-straight year they will skate in the national tournament.

UMD understand the tough task they have ahead of them, as Yale went 25 and 9 this season.

For UMD Head Coach Laura Schuler, winning a game like this is all about relentless effort.

“They are a team that continues to come at you. They don’t give up, and I think we saw that in yesterday’s game when they played. They’re going to be relentless but so are we. I think for us right now we want to go hard. We want to play our game, which is Bulldog hockey, blue collar, you know gritty, well-disciplined good, structured hockey,” said Schuler.

The Bulldogs match up against Yale in the tournament will be the first time the two programs will face off against each other.

When playing an unfamiliar team in the postseason UMD will have to learn their opponent quick, while also sticking to their own game plan in order to skate away with a victory.

“It’s super exciting, I think everybody is super excited, obviously during the season you play the same teams four times each,” said UMD defenseman Tova Henderson. “I just think honing into details is super important, making sure we are going over video against Yale. Obviously, we’ve never played them before. Just getting down to the little details of things and how they play.”

“Maybe it’s good that we don’t know a lot about them. Because maybe that can help us in our game too. Just believe in our tactics and what our game plan is,” said UMD forward Thea Johansson.

The Bulldogs first-round game against Yale is slated for Thursday, March 12th.

Puck drop is at 5 p.m.