November 8, 2023
Salt Lake City, Utah
The American Collegiate Hockey Association dropped their second ranking of the year for Women’s Division 1, and the University of Utah Skatin’ Utes (5-3-0) were ranked 21st out of 31 teams.
W1 has 10 points through 8 games played and is tied with the University of Denver (5-3-0) for 2nd place in the Western Women’s Collegiate Hockey League standings. Both teams sit behind Arizona State University (9-1-0), who has 18 points on the season, and are ranked 9th on the list. The Utes were swept by the Sun Devils a couple of weeks back in Arizona and they saw first-hand the high-caliber team that ASU has, a team that is deserving of their high ranking.
W1 was on the road two weeks ago to face Grand Canyon University (1-8-0), another WWCHL team, and they split the weekend series with one win a piece. Don’t let GCU’s 1-8 record fool you, they reside one spot below Utah in the rankings because of their ridiculously strong schedule, having played against 4 teams who are ranked in the top 10.
Utah hasn’t been overly tested with the schedule so far, but they will certainly be tested in a few days. This upcoming weekend the Utes will travel to the east coast to take on the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Minutemen (3-4-1). Umass has 6 points on the season and sit at 13th in the rankings due to their extremely tough schedule. Leaving Amherst with some points in the bank will work wonders for the W1 squad in the rankings and will help them continue their great start to the season.
We are more than a month into the 2023-24 season and some of the W1 producers deserve their flowers. Ava Kistner leads the team with 10 goals and 13 points (a 1.63 Pt/G) and is closely followed by Molly Murphy, who boasts 12 points, helped on by a team-leading 8 assists. Other point-collecting forwards include Sonia Charman (8 Pts), Halle Hansen (8 Pts), and Marykate Schutt (6 Pts). The blueliners have also been picking up points through assists, Megan Fisch has 4 and Alexandra Bye has 2. The numbers between the pipes have also been stellar and the team owes much of their success to the 2 netminders. Miranda de Antunano holds a .920 SV% through 360 minutes of hockey and 3 wins, and Caroline Steegmans has a Goals Against Average of only 1.95 through 2 games played.
By the time that the next rankings are released the Utes will hope to crack into the top 20 and rise as far as they can. The women will only have 4 more games to pot as many points as they can before putting the season on pause for the holidays, so they will need to bring their best in the next two weeks against Umass and Montana State.
Full rankings can be found here.
Full standings can be found here.
2023 ACHA W1 Ranking #2
(Thru 11/5/23)
| Rank | Team | W1 Record | Previous Ranking |
| 1 | Midland University | 13-0-1-0 | 2 |
| 2 | Liberty University | 8-1-0-1 | 1 |
| 3 | Maryville University | 10-5-0-1 | 5 |
| 4 | Adrian College | 7-3-0-0 | 3 |
| 5 | University of Michigan | 6-0-0-0 | 4 |
| 6 | McKendree University | 7-4-1-0 | 7 |
| 7 | Arizona State University | 9-1-0-0 | 9 |
| 8 | Indiana Tech | 9-1-0-0 | 8 |
| 9 | University of Jamestown | 6-2-0-0 | 6 |
| 10 | Minot State University | 5-7-0-0 | 10 |
| 11 | University of Michigan-Dearborn | 7-3-0-0 | 12 |
| 12 | University of Minnesota | 2-2-0-0 | 13 |
| 13 | University of Massachusetts | 3-5-0-1 | 14 |
| 14 | Grand Valley State University | 3-2-0-0 | 11 |
| 15 | Niagara University | 4-5-0-1 | 18 |
| 16 | Michigan State University | 5-4-0-1 | 19 |
| 17 | Penn State University | 4-4-0-0 | 16 |
| 18 | Lake Superior State University | 2-9-0-0 | 15 |
| 19 | Lindenwood University | 0-6-0-1 | 17 |
| 20 | Miami University | 0-8-0-1 | 24 |
| 21 | University of Utah |
5-3-0-1 | 22 |
