At Union, a Top Seed and Top Grades Slap Shot will feature reports from the campuses of colleges and universities playing in the N.C.A.A. Frozen Four tournament this week. Union College, a small, private liberal arts school in Schenectady, N.Y., has had its share of historic achievements, from being the first college chartered in New York to holding the title of the "Mother of Fraternities." The Union men's ice hockey team (26-7-7) has added another first - the Dutchmen are going to the Frozen Four hockey tournament. This season, the Dutchmen skated to a No. 3 ranking and a No. 1 seed in the N.C.A.A. Division I tournament. In a school of only 2,200 students that does not offer athletic scholarships, the Dutchmen's athletic abilities are now the center of attention, but players and coaches say that academics remain an integral part of their lives. The Dutchmen have been labeled underdogs in the tournament, but sophomore goaltender Troy Grosenick, whose academic achievements include Dean's List Scholar, Eastern College Athletic Conference Student Athlete of the Year finalist, Elite 89 Finalist and Hobey Baker Award finalist, disagrees with the assessment. "Just knowing the culture of the team and the overall academic culture of the school, we don't see ourselves as underdogs," Grosenick said. The E.C.A.C. division in which Union plays has 12 teams, 6 of them from the Ivy League, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Brown and Dartmouth. Union has produced three of the past five E.C.A.C. Hockey Student-Athlete of the Year award winners. Union's Athletic Director Jim McClaughin said, "Given the fact that we are against [Ivy League schools], that's a great achievement." Sixteen of 27 players on Union's 2010-2011 team were also members of the E.C.A.C. Hockey All Academic Team. The 2011-2012 has yet to be announced. "Our players are here for a reason, and that reason is academics," Union Coach Rick Bennett said. "The academic achievement is paramount for us because hockey is not going to last forever," McClaughlin, the athletic director, said. Grosenick agrees. When I was looking for schools, I wasn't looking just to play hockey. Student comes before athlete in student athlete. I was looking for a good academic school, not just a good hockey school. Union is the perfect combination of both," Grosenick explained. "Our team motto is, "Academics are 1, hockey is 1B,"" he continued. For the hockey program, McClaughlin said, "The work ethic in the classroom transfers over to the ice and the work ethic on the ice transfers to the classroom." The only plaque hanging on the Dutchmen's locker room wall is one that displays the team's academic achievements. "That's the only one you'll see in this locker room," Bennett said. Gabriella Levine, a sophomore, and Tess Koman, a junior, are the editors-in-chief of The Concordiensis, the student newspaper at Union College.