With 18 veterans returning and another promising freshman class added to the mix the Clarkson University Women’s Hockey team is looking forward to a highly successful campaign in 2013-14. The Golden Knights, guided by sixth-year co-head coaches Matt and Shannon Desrosiers and assistant Matt Kelly, will face a challenging schedule this winter as they strive to surpass the record-setting efforts of last season.

Coming off a school-record 28-10 record and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament, the Green and Gold will play eight games against teams that skated in the 2013 national playoffs.

"We are very excited for another great schedule this season,” stated co-head coach Shannon Desrosiers. “We have many of the top teams in the country coming to Cheel Arena and are fortunate to be invited to play in an outdoor game against RIT. We combine an impressive group of rookies that will add depth in all positions with a strong veteran core that now has NCAA Tr. experience. Coupling it with a strong schedule like this, should be a formula for a very exciting season."

2013-14 Clarkson Women's Hockey Schedule

In its 11th season of NCAA Division I hockey. Clarkson opens the 34-game slate facing off against College Hockey America’s (CHA) Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) on Saturday, September 28 for the first of 20 regular-season games at Cheel Arena.

Clarkson then faces arch-rival St. Lawrence University in back-to-back non-conference games. The Knights battle the Saints in Potsdam on October 4 for the first of four meetings against their North Country neighbor, followed by a game in Canton on October 5.

A home-and-home series with CHA foe Syracuse University on October 11-12 is followed by three consecutive games against a pair of NCAA powerhouses. The Knights host CHA frontrunner Mercyhurst College, which has skated in the past nine consecutive NCAA Tournaments, in a weekend series on October 18-19. Clarkson, which has qualified for ECAC Hockey postseason play in each of its first nine years in the highly competitive 12-team conference, opens the 22-game campaign against reigning league champion Cornell in Ithaca at Lynah Rink on October 25.

In other non-league games at Cheel, the Knights will host Providence College of Hockey East on November 15-16 and battle 2013 NCAA Tournament participant North Dakota of the WCHA in a weekend series on December 6-7.

The 2013 portion of the schedule comes to a close in mid-December when Clarkson will play in its first ever outdoor game. The Golden Knights face off against RIT at Frontier Field in Rochester, NY on Saturday, December 14 as part of a 10-day festival celebrating hockey spent outdoors in downtown Rochester.

The Green and Gold open the New Year with an exhibition game against McGill University on January 3 before returning to NCAA play with another home-and-home series with St. Lawrence, this time in ECAC Hockey action, on January 10-11.

Playoff hockey begins on February 28 with the quarterfinal round of the ECAC Hockey Tournament. The league's championship weekend will be held on March 7-8 at the campus site of the highest remaining seeds in the eight-team tournament. NCAA postseason play concludes on Sunday, March 23 with the 14th Annual Frozen Four at High Points Solutions arena at the TD Bank Sports Center on the campus of Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT.