The ECAC announced Monday the six teams that will compete in the post-season women's hockey tournament, but the seedings have raised many eyebrows in Division I hockey.

The committee made three controversial decisions, which have left several coaches questioning the tournament's format.

The committee, headed by Coach Laura Halldorson of Division III Colby, seeded Northeastern ahead of New Hampshire, despite the Huskies recent loss to Harvard in the Beanpot.

The committee also gave Princeton (9-7-1 overall) the number-four seed and home-ice against Dartmouth, which has beaten both Northeastern and UNH.

Finally, the committee selected Brown over Harvard for the sixth and final tournament slot, even through Harvard has a better ECAC record.

Decisions were based on the following criteria: head-to-head competition, record against common opponents, strength of schedule, overall won-loss record and recent performance.

Proper Use of Criteria

Coaches, however, questioned the committee's proper use of the criteria in seeding teams.

One argument is that the selection committee based its decisions almost entirely on head-to-head records, ignoring the other four criteria.

Dooley suggested that his team's poor performance against Brown head-to-head was the primary reason it did not get a bid.

"We've had a great year, but I'm afraid a couple of bad bounces [4-3 and 5-3 losses to Brown] during exam period have come back to haunt us," Dooley said.

Crowe said Dartmouth, too, suffered from improper application of selection criteria.

"In four out of the five factors, we had Princeton beat. But we couldn't beat them head-to-head," Crowe said.

Coaches have also argued that the standards for selection are incomplete: they say that ECAC regular-season standings should have been the primary criteria for tournament seeding.

"Coaches thought that [the committee] would go by the standings and everything else would be used in case of a tie," Crowe said. "We were shocked because we're a point and a half ahead of Princeton in the ECAC."