FLUSHING, N.Y. – During the 2021 season, the Queens College men's soccer team played 16 games without a home field as they logged road miles through the states of New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Philadelphia, Connecticut, New Jersey, and one trip to the Nation's capital.
While 6-7 of those trips still would have occurred, head coach
Frank Vertullo and his Knights battled in a tough non-conference and East Coast Conference schedule without the support of fans cheering for them in the stands as they finished the year 8-8 overall and missed out on ECC postseason play for the second straight year.
When the
2022 ECC preseason coaches poll took place, Queens was voted to finish sixth in the conference, even as Vertullo lined up 13 home games to play on their newly finished state-of-the-art turf field.
With the ability to practice and play at home, Vertullo and the Knights set out on a mission to prove the doubters wrong.
Over the course of 10 weeks at home and on the road, Queens played nationally and regionally ranked teams. The Knights rewrote the program record book as they earned a shutout victory over a Top-25 team in the nation, tallied multiple four-game win streaks, and earned nine total shutout victories.
Playing physically and learning how to grind out hard-fought wins, especially when facing a deficit, Queens set the program's single-season wins record as they finished the regular season with a 13-5 record.
Despite being voted to finish sixth in the conference standing, Vertullo led the Knights to a program-best #2 seed finish and for the first time in program history, Queens would earn hosting rights for one of the semi-final games and a chance for a potential home game to host the conference final.
On Oct. 26, the Knights finally earned the recognition they were searching for as they found themselves ranked for the first time in program history having earned the #9 spot in the first NCAA Men's Soccer Super-Region 1 ranking.
One week later and with a strong October resume behind them, they would jump up three spots as they earned the #6 spot on Nov. 2.
On Nov. 3 a hard-fought home ECC Semi-Final loss to the #4 ranked team in the region would leave them heartbroken with the winning goal coming in the first overtime.
Despite the loss, Vertullo and the Knights could take solace in that they had left everything on the field.
The 2022 season resume of 13-5 which included a 4-4 record against teams that were above .500 in the region could give them comfort that they had done the job they sought out to do when the season began and could be looking at their first-ever At-large bid to the NCAA Men's Soccer Tournament.
With all eyes on Monday's (Nov. 7) evening
men's soccer selection show, Vertullo and the Knights were now hoping to hear the magical sentence "
Await the Winner of QUEENS"
Vertullo stated "
This truly is special and well deserved. I am so happy and excited for my boys because they have worked so hard for this. It's a major step forward for this program that we envisioned and worked towards since we came here."
At 6:35 p.m., Vertullo along with his coaching staff and the student-athletes had heard their name called on the NCAA Selection Show as they earned the
#7 SEED in the NCAA Men's Soccer Super-Region 1 Bracket.
"The atmosphere of NCAA tournament games are an experience that the boys will never forget. This is just the beginning of something special for this program." Said Vertullo.
"I promise you the boys are not happy just to be here, we are here to win. We want to continue to prove people wrong and to get our respect."
Selection Show: https://www.ncaa.com/video/soccer-men
The Knights will match up against the #10 seed Adelphi University, a local opponent from Garden City, New York
The matchup will take place in Charleston, West Virginia on Thursday (Nov. 10) afternoon, hosted by the #2 seed University of Charleston Golden Eagles.
A match preview will be released Wednesday (Nov. 9) afternoon.
For the latest news on Queens College Athletics, follow the Knights at queensknights.com or via social media on Facebook (Queens College Athletics), Twitter (@QCKnights), and Instagram (qcknightsny), men's soccer (qcmsoccer)
