Queens College Athletics

Enter his 44th year in charge, head coach Alan Nagel has complied 614-176 (77.72%) overall record having led the Knights to nine East Coast Conference titles and his teams have made the NCAA Tournament for 21 straight years. 

In his 43rd season (2021-22) in charge, Alan Nagel led the Knights back to the ECC Championship match and their 21st straight NCAA Appearance in program history. Junior Maja Makal (Bialystok, Poland) was named the ECC Player of the Year for the second straight season, while junior Gabriela Sciarrotta (Woodmere, N.Y.) and senior Nathalie Ulander (Stockholm, Sweden) earned All-Conference honors. Queens finished the 21-22 season with an 11-8 overall and 3-2 in ECC play. The Knights defeated Wilmington University on April 23^rd to book their spot in the NCAA Tournament with a 4-3 victory.
 
Facing a truncated 2020-2021 season the Knights split their lone two regular season games against St. Thomas Aquinas before going into the ECC tournament play-in round. After dispatching Daemen the Knights met up with the Spartans again and took a 4-0 victory to clinch their second straight ECC postseason championship and their 20th straight appearance in the NCAA tournament where they were named the three seed in the East region. Under Nagel three Knights players; Lovisa Engstrand, Maja Makal, and Nathalie Ulander were named to the Women’s Tennis All-conference team as Makal was voted ECC player of the year, the second consecutive season that saw a Knights player capture the conference’s top individual award. The team finished the year off ranked 46th nationally and 4th in the East. 

Alan Nagel enters his 41st season as a head coach at Queens College in 2019-20. Nagel co-coached the men’s team for the first three years of his career before becoming the women’s head coach, a title he has held for the last 37 years. During this time, Nagel’s Queens College teams have amassed over 500 victories and have appeared in a number of NCAA Championships, earning a bid in each of the last 18 NCAA tournaments and advancing to the Round of 16 an impressive nine times.

The Knights ended 2019-20 with a 10-1 overall record, as they won the ECC regular-season championship and reclaimed the ECC crown. Queens finished the season being ranked 24th in the nation (highest ranking since the 2011-12 season) and number one in the East.

Nagel has earned the honor of East Coast Conference Coach of the Year 13 times during his tenure, and has been selected as the ITA East Region Coach of the Year three times in his career.

Nagel won Coach of the Year honors in the 2018-19 season as the Knights went 7-0 in East Coast Conference play and won the ECC regular-season crown for the second year in a row. Nagel oversaw five players to All-ECC accolades and the Knights finished the year as the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA East Region, defeating NYIT to advance to the NCAA Round of 16 and a date with twelfth-ranked North Georgia on the national stage.

In Nagel’s 2017-2018 campaign, he led the Knights to a perfect 7-0 fall conference record; and the Knights made the NCAA Tournament once again. The team's dazzling comeback victory over Stonehill in the East Region II Final, winning 5-4 after being down 3-0, helped Queens to advance to the national Round of 16. Individually, Reehan Rashad, Louisa Brunetti and Laura Ortega Jover all took home All-ECC First Team accolades, while Emy Alplund achieved All-ECC Second Team honors.

Queens went 14-4 overall and 6-1 in the ECC during the 2016-17 season. The Knights reached the ECC finals in the fall and then earned the No. 2 seed in the NCAA East Regional in the spring, where QC won the regional title and earned a spot in the NCAA Round of 16. Nagel was named ECC Coach of the Year and ITA East Region Coach of the Year. Meanwhile, for the third straight season, four Knights earned all-conference honors.

Over the past decade, Queens College women’s tennis has been on amazing roll. The 2016-17 team's finish in the Round of 16 in the NCAA Championship was the Knights’ 17th straight appearance in the NCAA tournament, and it was the sixth time in the last eight years that Coach Nagel’s team has won a regional title.

Under Nagel, Queens went 16-4 and 6-1 in the ECC during the 2015-16 season, reaching the conference and regional finals. The 2014-15 Knights had a spectacular year. Led by star senior Jenna Plevako, the team finished 17-5 overall record, with wins over three nationally ranked teams. After advancing to the Final 16, Queens finished the year 25^th in the final national rankings and second in both the ECC and Division II East Region rankings. For his part in the team’s success, Nagel was voted ECC Coach of the Year for the second year in a row.

In 2013-14, the Knights lost to just three different opponents all year, finishing 19-5 overall with a conference record of 7-1 and a final national ranking of 32. The successes of 2014 followed a 2012-13 season in which the Knights defeated the 15^th ranked team in the country, stretched their winning streak in the ECC regular season to 27 straight matches and won their fourth straight ECC regular season crown. During these last six years, the Knights were twice ranked as the number one team in the final East rankings and were slotted as the second team another five times.

Nagel has compiled quite the record as head coach at Queens College. His teams have won 557 matches while losing just 154 for an overall winning percentage of .781. In 1995, the Knights won the first Division II regional playoff, which at the time still included Pennsylvania state schools, and went on to their first Final 16 appearance in the NCAA Championship. Fast forward to 2019, and Coach Nagel’s teams have matched that finish ten times.

When Nagel began at Queens College, the school still competed in Division III in the Met Conference/Liberty Division. Competing against a collection of Division I, II and III schools that included Manhattan, Wagner, Long Island University and Hofstra, the Knights won the conference title eight times including a five-year stretch between 1990-1995 in which the team repeated as champions.

In 1989, Queens became a Division II member of the NCAA when it joined the NYCAC, enabling Coach Nagel to offer scholarships for the first time. In 1995, the Knights became the first team with an entire roster comprised of New York City residents to win regionals and advance to the Final 16 round of the NCAA Tournament in Davies, California. In the time since, Queens College’s tennis teams have taken on an increased international identity. Coach Nagel’s 2014-15 team included players from Morocco, Poland, India and Kazakhstan as well as standouts from the New York City region and Florida.

Coach Nagel earned his Bachelor's of Science degree in Physical Education from the University of Miami and his Masters in Physical Education and Health at Brooklyn College.  He went on to earn an additional 30 credits at Queens, St Johns and Old Westbury colleges.  He taught Physical Education for 33 years in the New York City public school system.  As a high school baseball player, he pitched for Far Rockaway High School where he earned All-Queens honors, pitched in the semi-finals of the city championship and was on the team that won the city championship in his sophomore year. Nagel also served as the Tennis Director and Head Pro at the Hamlet - a prestigious tennis community in Jericho, Long Island - for 28 years.