Rock Slide

When the American Collegiate Hockey Association released its pre-season rankings for the upcoming 2010-2011 division one season, Slippery Rock University was left off of this list. Last season, SRU went a Continental Hockey Mid-Atlantic division best 20-7-0-0-1 capturing its first regular season championship along with an automatic berth to the National Championship playoffs. Unfortunately, due to injuries, Slippery Rock University was forced to pull its spot in Nationals giving Kent State a shot at winning it all. Even with their impressive 2009-2010 season, the ACHA voters decided to keep SRU off of this list. Rounding out the top twenty-five includes West Chester University at number twenty-three, West Virginia University at number twenty-four, and Rutgers University at number twenty-five. SRU only lost three seniors this season and picked up an impressive twelve player recruiting class. The success from last year should have put the pride into ACHA’s top twenty-five ranking, but for some odd reason they were kept off the list. The pride started out their season by defeating Washington & Jefferson College 8-7, United States Naval Academy 3-1 and Towson University 9-0. The upcoming season will be a test of wills for the pride, as they will face four top twenty-five ranked teams in the next three weeks as they battle for a trip to the National Championship playoffs.