Nazareth will add women’s hockey to its list of intercollegiate athletic offerings with competition at the NCAA Division III level slated to begin with the 2018-19 season.



Nazareth’s newest team will play its home games at the Bill Gray’s Regional Iceplex on the Monroe Community College Campus, about a six-mile drive from the Nazareth campus. Nazareth’s men’s team, which recently completed its fifth season of intercollegiate play, also practices and plays its home games there.



The school’s athletic director, Pete Bothner, also said that the athletic department is moving forward with a nationwide search for a head coach that will be appointed soon.



The Golden Flyers will compete in the newly formed United Collegiate Hockey Conference with nine other schools: Chatham, Elmira, King’s, Lebanon Valley, Manhattanville, Neumann, Stevenson, Utica and William Smith.



“The addition of men’s hockey five years ago really enhanced the variety of our athletic offerings,” Bothner said in a statement. “Now we’re equally pleased to be able to offer women’s hockey. Our hope is that women’s hockey will draw interest from a diverse group of student-athletes from various areas of the country.”