Colby College’s Meg Rittenhouse, left, competes for the puck with Madi Aumann during a January practice in Waterville. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Holley Tyng knows full well the gravity of the Colby College women’s hockey game set for Wednesday night.

The Mules (17-7-0) will host Norwich University (19-7-2) in the first round of the NCAA Division III tournament at 7 p.m. at the O’Neil-O’Donnell Forum. It is the second straight season Colby has reached the NCAA tourney — the only two times in program history — and the first time the Mules get to play on their own home ice.

“It’s huge, it’s really exciting,” said Tyng, who is in her seventh year as the Colby head coach. “Getting an at-large bid and being able to host is just so special for the girls and the team, I’m thrilled.”

Colby fell 4-3 to Hamilton College on Friday in the semifinals of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) playoffs, finishing fourth overall in the conference standings. However, the Mules held the No. 8 position in the Women’s Division III PairWise national rankings, giving Colby the opportunity to make the tournament as an at-large bid.

“It’s so interesting how the PairWise and the bracket unfolds,” Tyng said. “You look at the polls, do we deserve to host? A lot of the people look and go, ‘Wow, I can’t believe it, you guys are fourth in the conference and you get to host, how does that work?’ Obviously, the PairWise (rankings) are important, and being able to track those down to the wire here and hold on to that No. 8 spot was huge.”

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Colby played Hamilton to the wire Friday. Down 3-2 in the third period, Colby tied the game on a McKinley Karpa goal, her second of the game. Nancy Loh put the game away with a goal late in the third for the Continentals.

Despite the loss, Tyng has been thrilled with the Mules’ play and compete level.

“We keep getting better,” Tyng said. “This time of year, that’s not always the case. I really like where the team is at. Five-0n-five, we played outstanding hockey last Friday against Hamilton. We shot ourselves in the foot by making some undisciplined penalties. We’ve got to stay out of the (penalty) box, we’ve got to be smarter there. And we have to have more confidence in our (penalty kill). We sort of struggle with a man down this year, we’ve got to sort of rally, grind and grit it out and find a way to block some shots and clear (the puck) and try to carry the momentum of killing a penalty off and get going back five-on-five.”

Colby College women’s hockey coach Holley Tyng, front, directs the team during a Jan. 3 practice in Waterville. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

The winner of Wednesday night’s game moves on to face Amherst College (24-3-0) in Saturday’s quarterfinal round. The Mules have had some success this season against the Mammoths, pulling a 5-4 win Feb. 4 in Waterville, a day after a 3-2 loss in overtime.

Tyng hopes there will be a big fan turnout for the game on Wednesday. Colby students will be allowed into the game for free.

“The students get in for free, which is awesome,” Tyng said. “The college will bear that cost, that’ll be good for us. I know a lot of families are coming. But to get to play in our arena, not having to be on the bus today, traveling and all that, I think it’s going to be a good boost for us.”

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The Colby women aren’t the only college hockey team in Maine prepping for a big postseason matchup. The University of Maine men’s hockey team (15-15-5) will host Vermont (10-19-5) in the opening round of the Hockey East tournament on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at Alfond Arena in Orono.

The Black Bears wrapped up their regular season on Saturday, dropping a 4-3 decision to the University of Massachusetts in back end of a two-game sweep. Despite its record, Maine has more than doubled its win record from last season (7-22-4), a positive step under the direction of second-year head coach Ben Barr.

“I think the character of the (locker room) has gotten better,” Barr said. “Not that (it was bad before), but the care factor is there because we have the right kids in the room. We have good leadership in Jakub Sirota, Lyndon (Breen), (sophomore defenseman ) David Breazeale, Benny Poisson, those guys do a fantastic job. And that’s not easy, especially with a new coach, new staff, from last year. Without them, you don’t get improvement without their buy-in. Their buy-in and their leadership has been fantastic.”

Breen, a junior, leads Maine with 34 points (19 goals, 15 assists), while senior Poisson (9 goals, 17 assists) has 26 points. Sophomore forward Nolan Renwick (9 goals, 11 assists) has been the leader among the younger core. The Black Bears have 15 players on the roster who are either freshmen or sophomores.

“Credit to the coaching (staff), they’ve posted a different kind of culture than what we’ve had here in past years,” Poisson said. “I think everybody has bought into that, which is huge. Everyone is selling out, no matter what, you’re playing for the guy next to you. I think that’s biggest thing, the culture brings out a different team.

The defense is led by senior captain Jakub Sirota, who is not only having a career year on the ice (6 goals, 9 assists), but off it as well. Sirota proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Dominika Ivanicka, during the senior ceremony after Saturday night’s game against UMass.

“She’s mentioned (marriage) a few times before and she’s mentioned it over the last few months, so I was quite confident she’d (say yes),” Sirota said.

“I just went, ‘You better hope she says yes, because it’s going to get really weird if she doesn’t say yes,'” Barr joked.

Maine swept the regular-season series against UVM, beating the Catamounts 3-1 on Dec. 2 and 5-1 the next night; both games were in Burlington, Vermont.