Assiniboine Community College in Brandon is heading into Nationals as the number three seed in the West Region.

"It's an amazing feeling, especially being at the Esso Cup last year. It's really exciting," said forward Alyssa Alderson.

Part of the team this year are three former Pembina Valley Hawks, Erin Doherty, Alderson, and Kenzie Heide.

"We're very excited. This is the first year for the team to go to Nationals," said Doherty who plays forward.

There will be 12 teams competing at the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Division II in Columbus Ohio March 14-18th.

The West region will have Lakehead University, Minot State University, Assiniboine College, North Dakota State University, Adrian College, and Loyola University of Chicago. Meanwhile, the East Region will feature; The University of Delaware, Bishop's University, Liberty Univsersity, Boston College, University at Buffalo, Monclair State University.

"We have to play our game. We can't play to the other teams level so we have to compete hard," said Arksey. "We have to do the little things right on the ice. We have a pretty good structure to our team. We've been a little bit snakebitten. We haven't scored a lot of goals, but our defence has played really well and our goaltending has been more than adequate as well. So we just have to score some goals."

During the regular season the Cougars went 19-6-0-2 with 100 goals for and only 36 against.

Last season Doherty, Heide, and Alderson took part in the 2017 National Female Midget "AAA" Championship the Esso Cup hosted in Morden.

"The Esso Cup was a great experience for us. I know that I had so much fun there and it was great to experience that. I'm excited to see how they're different and how the college league will do it differently. I know the pressure of playing in a national event like that, so I think that will help me out when I'm there."