LIVONIA, Mich. -- The Adrian College Women's ACHA Division 1 hockey team continued its long-time CCWHA Hockey Conference dominance on Sunday, capturing their seventh straight playoff championship after defeating Michigan-Dearborn in a thrilling and nail-biting title contest, 1-0.

After defeating Michigan and Penn State in the CCWHA quarterfinal and semifinal games earlier in the weekend, the Bulldogs set themselves up for a winner-take-all contest against Michigan-Dearborn on Sunday afternoon, the team that upset the Bulldogs earlier this season on Adrian's senior night.

The Bulldogs and Wolverines battled back and forth all game, in a dual that included scoreless first and second periods. With the score knotted at 0-0 in period three, the intensity increased as play began to grasp a "next goal wins" attitude. Then, with just over ten minutes remaining in regulation, Adrian created a scrum in front of the UMD net with Bulldog players battling to find a loose puck. After a few seconds of utter chaos in front of the net and no whistle, the loose puck popped out to Nadia Nickel who came in from the blueline to bury the eventual game-winning goal, assisted by Tyla Turnbull and Makenzie Villiard.

Adrian would hold on for the remainder of the game, fending off the Wolverines from tying it and forcing overtime. Rieley Jessie-Gerelli remained a brick wall in the cage, stopping all 17 shots she faced to lead her team to the historic championship victory. Nickel's heroics claimed herself the Most Valuable Player award.

With the title victory, the WD1 Bulldogs also clinched an auto-bid to the ACHA National Championship Tournament next month in St. Louis.