Wednesday Night in College Hockey: Mercy’s First ECC Semi, and Six More Division III Ties to Settle
Wednesday night is when the college season stops being about conference titles and starts being about survival. And tonight’s card is a long one, stretching from a 1pm ET start in New York right through to the small hours in Pakistan.
The headline game is in Dobbs Ferry. Mercy host D’Youville at 1pm ET in the first ever East Coast Conference semi-final, and the Mavericks could hardly be arriving in better shape. They’ve won seven straight, a programme record nine wins this season, and they shared the first ECC regular-season title. Top seed, home field, form team. That’s the lot.
D’Youville won’t be overawed, though. The Saints split the season series with Mercy, and they know the Mavericks are beatable because they’ve done it themselves. Mercy won the most recent meeting 5-2 on 24 October, but D’Youville come in at 7-10 with nothing to lose and a final on Saturday as the prize. The winner goes through to Saturday’s final, hosted by the highest remaining seed.
Mercy’s goalkeeper is the one to watch. Kaylise McClure passed 300 career saves this season and went 2-0 last week with a .929 save percentage as Mercy sealed the top seed. If D’Youville are going to spring the upset, they’ll have to beat her first.
Roberts Wesleyan’s turn
The second ECC semi-final starts at 6pm ET, with No. 2 Roberts Wesleyan hosting No. 3 Dominican of New York. Roberts Wesleyan finished 10-8 and 8-3 in the conference, and they shared that regular-season title with Mercy, losing the top seed on the tie-break. So they’ll feel they have a point to prove tonight.
Dominican took the third seed by beating D’Youville in overtime on Saturday, finishing 7-10 and 6-4 in the ECC. They split their season series with the Saints, and now they get a shot at the side that finished above them. For our money, Mercy against D’Youville is the safer pick of the two semis. This one feels like it could go either way.
Six more Division III ties
Over in Division III, twelve first-round games are on tonight, and six of them still need a proper look. The other six, including Johns Hopkins against Denison and Washington and Lee at York, were previewed yesterday.
Babson against Union is the pick of the six. Babson are 15-6, ranked 14th, and they’ve just won a sixth straight NEWMAC title by upsetting top seed MIT in the final. They host at 3pm ET on MacDowell Field. Union are the fairytale, 13-6 and Liberty League champions, back in the NCAA tournament for the first time in 52 years. The winner gets No. 2 Middlebury on Saturday. Babson have the pedigree and the home crowd. Union have the kind of story that makes neutrals lean in.
Salisbury against Penn State Harrisburg, also 3pm ET, is the other early one. Salisbury are old hands at this, 15-3, ranked sixth, in the NCAA tournament for a 41st time and a 32nd year running, and they’ve just won a second straight SUNYAC title. Harrisburg have just won their first United East title, beating St Mary’s in a shootout, and now they walk into Sea Gull Stadium. That’s a brutal first assignment for a programme’s first NCAA trip. Salisbury are heavy favourites, but Harrisburg have already shown they don’t fold under pressure.
At 4pm ET, Hamilton host Southern Maine at Goodfriend Field. Hamilton are 11-5 and ranked seventh, in the tournament for a third time and a second straight year after reaching the second round in 2025. Southern Maine are 15-7, Little East champions, making their seventh NCAA appearance but only their second since 2003. The winner meets the Wesleyan-Geneseo winner on Saturday at Middlebury.
Wesleyan against SUNY Geneseo is the other 4pm ET tie in that same Middlebury regional. Wesleyan are ranked tenth, Geneseo are 16-3. Not much between them on paper, and the winner gets a Saturday date at Peter Kohn Field.
Ursinus host Stevens at 4pm ET as well, with the winner heading to Christopher Newport for the weekend. And the late one is Swarthmore against Scranton at 6pm ET, the two sides fighting for a place in the Tufts regional alongside the Johns Hopkins-Denison winner.
The rest of tonight
The Division I tournament starts tonight too. Fairfield play Wagner at 2pm ET in College Park, and Saint Joseph’s meet Vermont at 3pm ET in Evanston, with Maryland and Northwestern waiting on Friday. Both games were previewed in full yesterday.
For viewers in Pakistan, the night runs like this: Mercy against D’Youville at 11:00pm, Fairfield against Wagner at midnight, Babson against Union and Salisbury against Penn State Harrisburg at 1:00am on Thursday, the 4pm ET Division III games at 2:00am, Roberts Wesleyan against Dominican and Swarthmore against Scranton at 4:00am. Division III games stream on NCAA.com, the Division I openers are on ESPN+. Set an alarm for the one you care about, because by Thursday morning twelve Division III teams will be done for the year.
