As much as certain things can change, they always seem to remain the same.

The 1998-99 season is really a new one for women's collegiate hockey. This is the first season of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Women's Division I League, which welcomes two more schools to the old ECAC Women's Alliance. With three players from the gold-medal U.S. Olympic team and two from the silver-winning Canadian team making their way from Nagano back to the northeast this winter, the ECAC should be more competitive and more fun to watch.

Looking at the polls, however, not much has changed from the end of last season. The U.S. College Hockey Online women's preseason poll's top four teams are the same schools that reached the American Women's College Hockey Alliance (AWCHA) Final Four last year: New Hampshire, Brown, Northeastern and Minnesota.

But all three finalists for last year's Patty Kazmaier Award--for national player of the year--have graduated, and many teams will be relying on former Olympians and other newcomers to contribute this season.

While the polls are remarkably similar to last season's standings (with the notable exception of Harvard), five months of hockey remain before the ECAC championship is decided at Brown's Meehan Auditorium on March 21. Here is how the ECAC teams shape up before the season, listed in the order in which the league's coaches picked them to finish in the Preseason Coaches' Poll.

New Hampshire

The coaches expect New Hampshire (UNH) to repeat its regular-season dominance. Last season went 31-5-3 in the regular season before squeaking by Harvard with a 2-1 overtime victory in the ECAC quarterfinals en route to winning the AWCHA national championship.

But the Wildcats were not unbeatable last year. Brown upset UNH, 4-3, in the ECAC championship game before losing to the Wildcats in the national championship a week later. And UNH is not the same team it was last year.

The Wildcats will miss Brandy Fisher, who won the Kazmaier Award after leading the league in scoring with 42 goals and 39 assists. They also lose AWCHA tournament Most Valuable Player Winny Brodt, who transferred to Minnesota.

New Hampshire's defense should remain strong, however, with the return of senior defender Nicki Luongo (11 goals, 23 assists), an AWCHA All-American. Junior goalie Alicia Roberts led the league with six shutouts and was third with a 1.80 goals-against average (GAA).

The front line also looks promising for the Wildcats. Senior forward Melisa Heitzman (27 g, 29 a), an All-ECAC second-team choice who finished third in the league in scoring, will be joined by junior Samantha Holmes (23 g, 23 a) and sophomore Michelle Thornton (18 g, 26 a), who finished sixth and seventh in scoring, respectively.

UNH did lose two key players but have a strong nucleus returning to defend the national title. The Wildcats have won either the ECAC regular season or tournament championship in three of the last five years.

Brown

The Bears (22-7-4) should have a good chance of defending their ECAC title and avenging last season's national championship game loss to the Wildcats. Brown has the best all-time ECAC league record (69-7-8) and it should be a force in the league again.

The biggest reason for this is the return of junior goalie Ali Brewer, a Second-Team All-ECAC selection who finished second in GAA with a 1.65 average. The netminder, who was the ECAC Tournament MVP, should be even more untouchable this year with the return of junior All-Ivy defender Tamra Jones and sophomore Tara Mounsey.