Rhode Island's 2000–01 schedule, for example, included future ECWHL opponents Boston University, Massachusetts and Penn State from the first category, alongside the JV team from Brown and DIII's Salve Regina.

[9] The $12 million, 2,500-seat Bradford R. Boss Arena, which finally gave the Rams a top on-campus facility and would prove instrumental to the program's growth in the years that followed, opened in the fall of 2002.

Although the Rams showed steady improvement over their first four years, there really wasn't much indication of what would follow in season five: an immediate and decisive ascension into one of the nation's best programs, a status that continues to the present day.

The next week, URI finished second at the UMass White Out Tournament, an invitational[12] packed with powerhouses like the hosting Minutewomen, West Los Angeles College, Colorado and Robert Morris (IL), before thoroughly dominating the schedule's home stretch.

Rosselle headlined a stellar group of freshman that also included Alysa Coleman, Karen Hawes and Lynn Pecci, who would become a mainstay in the Rams' crease during the middle part of the decade.

Things started well in East Lansing, MI as URI took first in its pool and made the semifinals with decisive wins over West LA and Iowa State, before taking down MSU for the second time in 2003–04 during the final four round.

The spectacular 2003–04 season was hardly a one-off affair as URI recharged with another great incoming class, headlined by Pagliarini and goaltender Kelly Jourdain, while retaining most of its core.

A steady flow of other program legends like Kate Garcia (2005–09), Jolene Rambone (2006–10), Justine Ducie (2007–11) and Meghan Birnie (2008-12) arriving in subsequent seasons ensured that the Rams remained in constant contention.

Both came during a stretch that saw her team qualify for the ACHA semifinals in five consecutive seasons, from the runner-up finish of 2003–04 through 2007–08, when defending national champion Robert Morris (IL) took out the Rams in the final four round.

The Rams' run in the 2006 tournament was among the team's closest calls since the 2004 title game, as Chelsea Skorupski and Emily Tuohey put Rhode Island up 2–0 on RMU in the semis before a natural hat trick from 2006–07 Zoë M. Harris Award winner Savannah Varner flipped the result to 3–2 for the Eagles.

Despite the heightened competition within the league, URI more than held their own by winning four playoff and two regular season ECWHL titles over six years from 2008–09 through 2013–14, a combined total doubling that of UMass, the next highest team.

In 2009–10, the Lindenwood dynasty again presented a wall too high in the semifinals, while ascending Northeastern posed the same problem the following year and 2012–13 champion Minnesota blocked URI in the pool stage that time around.

[18] The 2014–15 season started well, with the Rams moving into the ACHA's top five and highlighted by a 4–3 come-from-behind overtime win at second-ranked Liberty, which gave the eventual national champion Flames their first loss.

[19] Just two days after the big win, however, a coach-player disagreement at practice resulted in All-American goaltender DiLorenzo being kicked off the team, while two other players also left the squad during the season.

Although the Rams largely survived the rough patch and finished with a 21–11–1 overall record while reaching the ECWHL championship game, a blowout loss to Massachusetts in that final and narrowly missing out on the ACHA National Tournament for the first time since 2003 brought the campaign to a bitter close.

By her second year in charge, Pagliarini managed to stabilize things, as senior tri-captains Collins, DiFilippo and Callahan, along with classmate Levesque, dominated the ACHA scoring charts.

Most of these began with the completion of Boss Arena, a facility considered capable of hosting NCAA hockey, in 2002, an occasion that led to then-athletic director Ron Petro to openly research the concept.

I made a recommendation to the president in April, but we've been hit with budget cuts as most people have been, so we've delayed any decision on that until we can get a better hold on how to finance a Division I hockey program for men and women, which we know would be way over a million dollars.

[22] However, in September 2014, athletic director Thorr Bjorn torpedoed things by flatly stating that the school "isn't currently looking at adding varsity hockey to our slate of offered sports.

The inaugural 2000–01 season (which did not include Rhode Island) featured teams divided into East and West Regions, with the top four from each in February's final ranking invited to nationals.

The team included Rhode Island players Jolene Rambone (who served as captain), Justine Ducie, Danika Korpacz and Johanna Leskinen[73] and was led by Rams head coach Beth McCann.

[75] By any measure, Rhode Island-Massachusetts is one of the nation's best rivalries, mirroring the well-regarded clashes between the universities separated by roughly a two-hour drive in men's basketball and other sports.

The two have directly collided in the conference championship game at least nine times (the 2010 playoffs are undocumented), with the Rams holding a 6–3 advantage in those meetings (although the Minutewomen have won the last three, in 2015, 2016 and 2017, most recently by a 3–0 count[76]).

However, the Rams' Rachel MacDonald forced overtime with 3:25 remaining, allowing URI's Justine Ducie to win the trophy in the sixth minute of the third extra period.

During the 2016 tournament, with both teams already eliminated in the pool stage, URI gained a measure of revenge for UMass' victory in the ECWHL title game three weeks earlier with a 5–2 win behind two goals each from Alisha DiFilippo and Monica Darby.

Penn State's original women's hockey team was a powerhouse in the early days of ACHA sanctioning, and accordingly drummed the then-building Rams by a combined 50–2 count over four games during the 2000–01 and 2001–02 seasons.

Rhode Island thoroughly dominated the series from there, starting with a 28-game unbeaten run lasting from November 15, 2003, until October 23, 2010[79] and finishing 34–2–1 against the Lady Icers from 2003–04 through 2011–12 (including 4–0–0 in the ECWHL playoffs and a 5–0 result at the 2010 ACHA National Tournament[80]).

Overall, Rhode Island is 0–6–0 against RMU in ACHA tournament play, with the most recent contest taking place in 2012, when the Eagles once again blocked Beth McCann's squad from advancement with a 2–0 win in the final game of the pool round.

The most recent meeting between the sides occurred during the 2014–15 regular season, with a Cassie Catlow hat trick powering a 6–4 URI win[83] before RMU forfeited the second game of the series.

[84] Although games between the Rams and Sacred Heart, an NCAA Division I program, count for little more than bragging rights, SHU is a staple of Rhode Island's schedule each season and a valuable measuring-stick opponent.