An already historic season continues for the Cornell women's hockey team, as it makes its first appearance in the NCAA Division I Women's Hockey Frozen Four. The team will battle top-seeded Mercyhurst in the first of two national semifinals March 19 at 6 p.m. at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Minn.

The Big Red spent the day before game day getting a taste of the action at Ridder Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota, where head coach Doug Derraugh and senior co-captain Kelly McGinty spoke with the media about the road to Cornell's first NCAA semifinals.

One of the nation's top young programs, Cornell earned its berth in the NCAA semifinals with a 6-2 victory over fourth-seeded Harvard on March 12 in Cambridge, Mass. The Big Red qualified for the NCAA tournament after winning the ECAC Hockey tournament and garnering the league's automatic berth into the field of eight teams.

The nation's two longest unbeaten streaks will go head to head when Cornell and Mercyhurst meet March 19. Cornell's streak is at 11 games, going 10-0-1 over that span, including winning 10 straight games, while Mercyhurst is 10-0-0 over the last 10 games. The winner will advance to the national championship game, which will be played Sunday at 1 p.m. against the winner of Minnesota vs. Minnesota-Duluth.

The game will be televised live on CBS College Sports, and fans can listen to live streaming audio through the Cornell Redcast system. The audio broadcast will be available free of charge to all listeners at http://www.cornellbigred.com/showcase.