Queens College Athletics NCAA Bids and All-Americans (since 1997)
NCAA Postseason Bids
1997 Men’s Water Polo Final Four – 3rd place *
1998 Men’s Baseball Northeast Regional
1999 Softball Northeast Regional
2000 Women’s Volleyball Northeast Regional
2001 Men’s Basketball Northeast Regional
Softball Northeast Regional
Women’s Volleyball Northeast Regional
2002 Men’s Basketball Northeast Regional
Men’s Golf Northeast Super Regional
Men’s Tennis East Regional
Men’s Water Polo Final Four – 3rd place
Softball Northeast Regional
Women’s Tennis East Regional
2003 Men’s Golf Northeast Super Regional
Men’s Tennis East Regional
Women’s Tennis East Regional
Women’s Volleyball Elite Eight
2004 Men’s Golf Northeast Super Regional
Men’s Tennis East Regional
Women’s Tennis East Regional
Women’s Volleyball Elite Eight
2005 Women’s Tennis East Regional
Men's Basketball Northeast Regional
Men's Tennis East Regional
* first team from the east coast to win a game at the Final Four
All-Americans
1997 Andre Doria Men’s Water Polo
Derek Ellingson Men’s Water Polo
David Moore Men’s Water Polo
John Vasek Men’s Water Polo
1998 Justin Davies Baseball
1999 Solangii Gallego Women’s Diving
2000 Solangii Gallego Women’s Diving
2001 Burak Incecam Men’s Water Polo
Mikhail Klochkov # Men’s Water Polo
Michel Viera Men’s Water Polo
Vedran Sokac Men’s Water Polo
2002 Cheryl Cosenzo Softball
2003 Anna Bondarenko Women’s Volleyball
2004 Anna Bondarenko Women’s Volleyball
# represented Kazahkstan at the 2004 Athens Olympics
Varsity Programs
The Athletic Department at Queens College sponsors fifteen separate men’s and women’s championship eligible varsity teams in eight different sports. The longest running among these fifteen programs are the men’s basketball and baseball teams.
Men’s basketball has put a team on the court in every season since its inception in 1938. On February 14, 2004 the team played its 1500th game and, in those 1500 games, has produced twenty 1,000-point scorers. Of these twenty players, twelve have achieved this milestone after the college began play in Division II in 1983 and four - Alan Hevesi (#5), Norman Roberts (#15), Jeff Maloney (#22) and Norman Roberts (#15) - have had their numbers retired. Although the program has a long-running record of achievement, its biggest successes have come in the last several years. In 2001 the Knights earned their first NCAA Division II Northeast Regional bid. 2002 saw the team earn their second consecutive bid along with the program’s first NYCAC championship and, in 2005, the team once again was crowned NYCAC Champions and received an automatic bid to the NCAA's.
With the exception of three years during World War II, the baseball program, like men’s basketball, has fielded a team since 1938. And, like men’s basketball, it too will play its 1500th game in the near future. In both 1967 and 1976 the team captured the Knickerbocker Conference championship and in 1981 it won the CUNY championship. Their championships in 1976 and 1981 also earned them NCAA Division III tournament bids. More recently, the squad captured the NYCAC regular season championships in 1997 and 1998, the NYCAC tournament championship in 1998 and a bid to the NCAA Division II Northeast Regional. Individually, seven players have been drafted and nine players have gone on to play professionally with organizations including the New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals. The latest of these draftees is 1998 All-American Justin Davies who, after playing in the Toronto Blue Jays organization for two seasons, has spent the four years (2000-2004) as on outfielder for the Long Island Ducks of the Independent League.
Although not quite as long as it’s male counterparts, the women’s basketball program’s history is no less storied. On March 24, 1973, the Lady Knights, who were ranked #2 in the country, took the Fitzgerald Gymnasium court with the AIAW (Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women) National Championship at stake. On February 21, 1975 they played in the first women’s basketball game ever played in Madison Square Garden. Three players from this era – Debbie Mason (#15), Gail Marquis (#25) and Althea Gwyn (#31) – have had their numbers retired. In the last decade the team has rebounded from a short down period to make a return to the NYCAC playoffs while producing several top-flight players, including Honorable Mention All-American in Carolyn Burke.
Three NCAA Division II Northeast Regional bids and the first two NYCAC Championships in the team’s history provide some of the highlights of the last decade of Lady Knights’ softball. In the period from 1997 until 2003, the team posted a .640 winning percentage and won 30 or more games in a season three times. One of those 30 win seasons came in 1999 when the team won their first NYCAC tournament championship and earned their first NCAA bid. Two season later, third team All-American Cheryl Cosenzo helped lead the Lady Knights to their second NYCAC championship as well as an NCAA bid and in 2002 the team earned their third Northeast Regional bid in five years.
After producing nineteen consecutive winning seasons, it can be argued that the most consistently successful program at Queens College belongs to women’s tennis. In those nineteen years the team has won four conference championships while its players have won countless individual and doubles titles. At the top of the list of individual honors is the selection of Dominika Bajuk as 2004 N.Y.C.A.C. Player of the Year. The Lady Knights have also earned NCAA Division II post-season championship bids in 2002, 2003, 2004 and the upcoming 2005 championships as well as in 1995 when, as hosts, they won their region and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.
Not to be outdone, the men’s tennis team has also been very successful in their own right by capturing several Metropolitan Tennis Conference championships over the years. Since the formation of a men’s tennis division in NYCAC, the team has won several individual conference titles and consistently competed for the team championship while earning the first NCAA Division II post-season tournament bids in their history in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.
In 2003, the women’s volleyball team did something only one other team has done in school history – advance to an NCAA Elite Eight. This achievement was just one of several firsts for the team in 2003. Not only did they win their first NYCAC championship, they also was the top ranked team in the Northeast for the first time, hosted the NCAA Division II Northeast Regionals for the first time and won the Regionals for the first time. The team then repeated as Regional hosts and Northeast Regional Champions in 2004. The Lady Knights were led by Anna Bondarenko, who became the first women’s volleyball player from Queens College to be named to the All-American team in 2003. She was also selected in 2004 and joined Masha Mosenzhnik and Noelia Castillo as one of three Lady Knights to be named NYCAC Player of the Year while becoming the only QC player to win the award in two consecutive seasons. All of this success did not happen overnight. The program earned NCAA bids in both 2000 and 2001.
Since 1995 the men’s volleyball team has posted seven winning seasons. In five of those seasons, most recently 2002, the team has been crowned Odeneal Division champions. In 1995 through 1998 the Knights also earned invitations to the Division II championships.
Perhaps the greatest achievements of any Queens College program belong to the men’s water polo team. Since the mid-1990’s, the Knights have been ranked in the top 20 nationally ten consecutive seasons while producing 18 All-Americans. During this same period they won eight Northern Division championships and two Eastern Championships. In 1997 Queens College became the first school from the east coast to ever win a game at the NCAA Division I Final Four championships when they defeated UC San Diego in the third place game. The team also advanced to the NCAA Final Four five years later and, once again, came away with the third place trophy. Many players on this team also are members of the men’s swim team, which has fared well recently in the Metropolitan Swimming Conference championships.
Sharing the pool with the men is the women’s swim team. Each season the team outperforms its predecessors by rewriting the record book. It also has consistently placed in the top three in its division at the Metropolitan Swimming Conference Championship while posting unblemished conference records in both 1999 and 2000. Several Lady Knight swimmers and divers have also risen above the competition in the last decade. In 1999 and 2000 Solangii Gallego was named an All-American while qualifying for the NCAA Division II and ECAC Diving Championships. In 2001 the medley relay team was ranked in the top 20 nationally and qualified for the ECAC championships. The team also produced the conference’s Outstanding Senior in 1996 and 2000 as well as the Outstanding Rookie in 1997 and the Most Valuable Diver in 1999.
In 1995 the athletic department added women’s water polo. Three short years later the squad won the New York State Division Championship after finishing second in the previous season. Two years after that championship, the team produced their division’s Most Valuable Player, won a school record 19 games and was unbeaten in division play.
Three of the college’s newest programs are golf, women’s soccer and women’s fencing. The golf team, which won their first varsity match in 1999, earned NCAA Division II post season bids in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Women’s Soccer, which got its first-ever goal from Terri Thompson on September 27, 1999, has shown steady improvement since its inaugural season. In 2003 the team posted the first winning record in the program’s short history and had one of its players earn all-conference honors for the first time as well. Then, in 2004, they earned a bid to the ECAC Division II Northeast Championships, the first postseason bid in their history. Still in its infancy, women’s fencing started up in 2001.