By Natalie Heavren, Staff Writer

Mason Club Ice Hockey competed last week in the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) National Championships for the first time in school history.  

This was a historic season for the team, which finished with a 21-3-1 record. Mason placed third in the region and first in the division — their highest rankings in team history.

The team went on to defeat the University of Delaware and Fordham University in the Men’s Division 3 2017-2018 Atlantic Regional tournament to be one of sixteen teams in the country to make it to Nationals.

In their first Nationals appearance the Mason team went 1-2-0, and finished the season ranked number 20 in the ACHA Division 3 Men’s rankings.

The ACHA was established in 1991 with 15 charter members, and is now made up of close to 400 teams across three divisions. Mason Club Ice Hockey has also come a long way in a short period of time.

“Over the last ten years, GMU ice hockey has gone from a bunch of college kids just looking to have fun to a top-tier ACHA program,” said Assistant Coach Tony Cordova.

Mason’s scoring has been critical to their success this season, averaging almost three more goals per game this season than the division average. This is partly due to taking twelve more shots per game — extra work that has paid off now that the team has made it to Nationals.

“The boys this year have worked hard and it has shown by giving the program its first national tournament bid,” said Cordova. “I couldn’t be more proud of this group of young men.”

One of those young scorers is sophomore center Trevor Mack, who in his first season on the team has scored 65 points. Mack said the rest of the team were confident about what they could achieve this year.

“We knew from the beginning of the season we had enough talent to make Nationals, we just had to make sure we put the work in,” said Mack.

Photo by Rick Baker