PLYMOUTH – New Plymouth State University women’s ice hockey head coach Josh Funk will need to wait another year for his New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) debut as the league announced the cancelation of its regular season and championship tournament on Monday.

However, PSU may still play some games this winter.

The announcement, released on the conference website, noted there would not be a conference regular season or championship tournament, but did give members the freedom to schedule non-conference competition.

“We both understand the decision of the NEHC and feel for our student-athletes,” said Plymouth State Director of Athletics Kim Bownes. “Despite the lack of a regular conference season or championship, the league is allowing its members to create meaningful schedules that fit the needs of each school.

“Our intention is to schedule regional competition with teams that have comparable testing protocols to ours and are not restricted by travel.”

The NEHC Board of Directors had voted in late July to postpone the 2020 portion of the schedule until January. The league becomes the latest in a list of Division III conferences to cancel play. Included among them is the Great Northeast Athletic Conference, in which Nashua’s Rivier University plays all its sports, and Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC), where the PSU men’s ice hockey team plays.

“The NEHC had remained optimistic that a season could safely take place this winter,” conference officials said in a statement. “However, with a surge in cases both nationally and regionally, state-to-state travel amongst the membership has proved insurmountable. The NEHC membership hails from six different states that each have a variety of travel restrictions in place as it pertains to crossing state lines during the pandemic.”