The Rivier University hockey players have something more to celebrate now besides a goal -- the entry tinto an existing hockey conference, the MASCAC, in another year. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The text message Wednesday from Rivier University men’s hockey coach Matt Keating was brief.

“Finally got into one,” he said.

Besides feverishly recruiting and helping to schedule his team’s seasons, Keating – as well as Rivier athletic director Jonathan Harper – have been working the last year to get the Raiders, who will be entering their third season of existence in the fall, into a hockey conference.

Their goal was finally met on Wednesday when it was announced the Raiders men’s and women’s hockey programs, along with those at Anna Maria, would join the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) for men’s hockey. The women’s addition is provisional, as the MASCAC does not currently have women’s ice hockey but will be working on that addition in the near future.

Rivier men’s hockey will join the conference for the 2024-25 season. Rivier competes in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference for all other men’s and women’s sports, a conference it helped create nearly 30 years ago.

Operating basically as an independent the last couple of seasons, the Raider men will now compete against Fitchburg, Salem, Worcester, UMass Dartmouth, Westfield, Framingham and Anna Maria – most of whom had been on their schedule. But now the Raiders have something to compete for – a conference title and NCAA tourney bid.

“We’re thrilled to align with the MASCAC for men’s and women’s ice hockey,” Harper said in a release. “As we enter our third year sponsoring hockey, we look forward to quality competition while affording our student athletes with the opportunity to contend for a conference championship.”

The Raider men were 8-15-2 last season, 13-31-4 over two seasons, showing improvement. The women were 6-15-3 this past season, a big step forward from their inaugural one-win season.

Aligning with the MASCAC should help both programs with recruiting.

“When you’re a new program, you need some things, right?” Keating said. “One of the first things was getting into a league, and now we got it. When you recruit, the big question these kids ask is about a league, and I can’t lie to them, right? At the end of the day, I always felt we were going to get one, but you can’t tell the recruits this. Now, once you hear it, we can say, ‘Yes, we’re in a league, we have the chance to make the NCAA tournament now.’

“With new leagues, you have to wait two or three years (for the NCAAs). Now we can go right away. The best thing is the guys who have been here since day one, now they have a chance at it. Plus all the little things (league awards, etc.) that go with it.”

Keating said it was a very hard to get, as a lot of leagues were set. But with the Little East soon to be adding hockey, the MASCAC was possibly losing teams so it was in a welcoming mood.

“This is where we wanted to be,” Keating said. “The (close) travel is beautiful. A lot of teams around the area, a lot of teams have been playing for decades, a lot of history, a lot of good players have come out of this league. And we play these teams.”

The women’s move, when it happens, should be a boost as well. MCLA is a new program, then you have Salem and Worcester, and add Rivier and Anna Maria to make five.

“It advances the MASCAC membership towards reaching a strategic goal of increasing the number of sports in the league with the addition of women’s ice hockey,” MASCAC Commissioner Angela Baumann said.