Wahconah Icers Seeded Third in Sectional

WESTFIELD, Mass. -- The Wahconah hockey team will begin its quest for a sectional title on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in West Springfield against Belchertown.

 

Wahconah received the No. 3 seed in a six-team Western Mass Division 3A bracket when the seeds were announced Saturday morning at Amelia Park Arena.

 

Wahconah (14-3-2) will face Belchertown (7-8-3) at the Olympia Center in West Springfield for a berth in Saturday's sectional semi-final against No. 2 Amherst (13-4-3).

 

Amherst and top-seeded Greenfield (17-3) each await the winners of Tuesday's quarter-finals to see who advances to Saturday's semis.

 

No. 4 Chicopee (9-7-4) and NO. 5 South Hadley (11-7-2) will face off in Tuesday's nightcap for the right to take on the Green Wave.

 

Teams qualified for the sectional by finishing at or above .500 or finishing first or second in their league. Belchertown qualified as the runner-up in its league.

 

The six qualified teams then were seeded based on a modified version of the Walker System, which takes into account overall winning percentage, strength of schedule and success against qualifying teams.

 

Wahconah finished with the second-best winning percentage (.789) in the division but ranked third in both strength of schedule and success against qualifiers, tournament director Mike Shea reported at Saturday's meeting.

 

As with all MIAA tournaments, seeds are tentative for 24 hours to allow teams to protest their placement.