The

Western Collegiate Hockey Association The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...

is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates as a women's

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

conference in the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

's National Collegiate division, the de facto equivalent of Division I in that sport. Founded in 1951 as a men's ice hockey conference, it added a women's division in 1999, and continued to operate men's and women's divisions through the 2020–21 hockey season. After that season, the WCHA disbanded its men's division after seven of its 10 men's members left the conference to reestablish the

Central Collegiate Hockey Association The Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) is a college athletic conference that participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. The current CCHA began play in the 2021–22 season; a previous incarnation, which the curr ...

; the WCHA remained in operation as a women-only league. Each team plays 28 league games, each team playing four games against every other, two home games and two road games. The women's WCHA tournament seeds all 8 teams, and conducts a standard 8-team tournament at a single site over 4 days. The winner receives the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. WCHA teams won the first 13 NCAA Tournament championships from its inception in 2001.

Championships

By season

By school

Notes

Location of women's WCHA tournaments

*2000: Bloomington Ice Garden; Bloomington, Minnesota *2001: Rochester Recreation Center; Rochester, Minnesota *2002: Fogerty Arena;

Blaine, Minnesota Blaine is a suburban city in Anoka and Ramsey counties in the State of Minnesota, United States. Once a rural town, Blaine's population has increased significantly in the last 60 years. For several years, Blaine led the Twin Cities metro region ...

*2003:

Ralph Engelstad Arena Ralph Engelstad Arena (REA), commonly called the Ralph, is an indoor arena located on the campus of the University of North Dakota (UND) in Grand Forks, North Dakota and serves as the home of UND men's ice hockey. The arena was built by controvers ...

; Grand Forks, North Dakota *2004–2007:

Ridder Arena Ridder may refer to: Places *DeRidder, Louisiana, city in US state of Louisiana *Ridder, Kazakhstan, settlement in Kazakhstan (named for Philip Ridder) Things *Ridder (title), Dutch and Belgian title equivalent to knight * Knight Ridder, newspaper ...

; Minneapolis, Minnesota *2008: Duluth Entertainment Convention Center;

Duluth, Minnesota , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

*2009–2013: Ridder Arena; Minneapolis, Minnesota *2014:

Sanford Center The Sanford Center is a 4,700-seat multi-purpose arena and convention center in Bemidji, Minnesota, United States that opened in October 2010. On October 18, 2010, the venue was renamed from the Bemidji Regional Events Center to the Sanford Cente ...

;

Bemidji, Minnesota Bemidji ( ) is a city and the county seat of Beltrami County, in northern Minnesota, United States. The population was 14,574 at the 2020 census. According to 2021 census estimates, the city is estimated to have a population of 15,279, making i ...

*2015: Ralph Engelstad Arena; Grand Forks, North Dakota *2016–present: Ridder Arena; Minneapolis, Minnesota

Footnotes

References

{{Western Collegiate Hockey Association women's navbox Champions, women