Stonehill College is moving up to Division 1, joining the Northeast Athletic Conference in all varsity men's and women's sports except for men's and women's hockey.
However, the Stonehill Skyhawks men's hockey will play D1 hockey in the 2022-23 season, they will just do so as an independent team. The Easton, Mass.-based school will join the University of Alaska, University of Alaska-Anchorage, Arizona State, Lindenwood University and Long Island University as one of six independent teams. The South Dakota-based Augustana College will become a D1 independent team beginning in 2023-24.
The women's hockey team was already slated to begin playing in the D1 New England Women's Collegiate Hockey Alliance for the 2022-23 season, so this move is transparent to the original plans announced in 2020. The COVID pandemic delayed the Stonehill women's team launch by a season, but all is on track for the Lady Skyhawks to begin play in the fall, under head coach and former Boston University defender and women's assistant coach Tara Watchorn. Several members of the MIAA Division 1 girls hockey champion Austin Prep Cougars will be joining the inaugural Stonehill squad: Maeve Carey, Lauryn Hanafin and Kathryn Karo.
