Yale backs out of ECAC hockey quarterfinals against Quinnipiac

Bryan Schwartz
March 11, 2020

Amidst the concern surrounding the coronavirus, Yale University has decided to end its season, backing out of this weekend’s ECAC hockey quarterfinal series against Quinnipiac at the People’s United Center.

Fans will not be permitted into the arena for the series, as first reported by News 8 and now confirmed by Quinnipiac University.

Each student-athlete from Quinnipiac and Princeton are allowed no more than three guests at each game, according to the release.

Yale joins Harvard who also bowed out of the league’s quarterfinal round. The school chose to take a forfeit in its series against Rensselear.

The league announced a re-seeding of the remaining six teams in the playoff. Quinnipiac will play Princeton and Colgate to take on RPI. The top two seeds left, Cornell and Clarkson will get byes into the semifinals in Lake Placid next weekend.

The NCAA also announced Wednesday afternoon that fans will not be permitted into its upcoming men’s and women’s basketball tournaments around the nation.

Quinnipiac president Judy Olian announced Tuesday the school, itself, will shift to online-only classes for the foreseeable future.

This email was sent to the entire Quinnipiac community on the university’s efforts to protect its students and faculty from the coronavirus pandemic.

Ticket sales for the hockey games this weekend had been put on halt over the past few days as the university had not made a decision yet.

It’s the first of more potential athletic events being cancelled for Quinnipiac.

Late Wednesday night it was announced the MAAC basketball tournament in Atlantic City, N.J. will go on, but with only immediate family members and team staff in attendance. Both Quinnipiac women’s and men’s teams are set to play Thursday.

The Ivy League announced earlier Wednesday that the conference is canceling all spring sports for this season, after wiping out its basketball championships scheduled for this week.

The MAC and Big West basketball tournaments were the first conferences to announce their championships will not be open to the public.

Quinnipiac women’s basketball head coach Tricia Fabbri weighed in on the subject as her team prepares for the 2020 MAAC tournament New Jersey.

Updated March 12, 10:10 a.m.