The state that annually features some of the most competitive big-time NCAA basketball anywhere will play host to its first-ever college hockey tournament in early October.
The Pineville Ice House in Pineville, N.C., will be the site of the first “Charlotte Shootout,” an American Collegiate Hockey Association tournament featuring club teams representing Appalachian State, East Carolina, Georgia Tech and George Washington. They’re four of last season’s top ACHA Division III South Region teams.
Round-robin play will begin Oct. 5 when Georgia Tech, the No. 3-ranked ACHA Division III squad, takes on No. 11 Appalachian State. The Tech-East Carolina showdown the morning of the 7th will wrap up the event.
The co-host clubs, App State and Tech, invited teams they traditionally do not play during the regular season to join them in the Shootout.
Tech finished the 2006-07 regular season with a 17-7-0 won-lost-tied record that earned the Yellow Jackets their sixth berth in the ACHA Division III National Tournament.
The Pineville Ice House will be up-and-coming App State’s home rink this season. Along with No. 8-ranked East Carolina, in its third year of play, App Sate dropped out of the Blue Ridge Hockey Conference over the summer to play an independent schedule this season.
For No. 9 George Washington, whose campus is in Washington, D.C., the Shootout is an opportunity to meet foes from further south on neutral ice.
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