A week after closing their lockers for what they thought was the final time in 2005, the Rensselaer men’s soccer team was forced to dust off their cleats in a hurry and prepare for Kueka College at Kueka, N.Y., in today’s first-round matchup of the ECAC Upstate Championship.
“It was a complete surprise,” Rensselaer Head Coach Adam Clinton said of his team’s selection to the tournament. The fourth-year head coach actually received the call from the ECAC about an hour before his team was scheduled to its final meeting of the year.
Instead of counting inventory on jerseys, Clinton spent the next hour hunting down players, scouting Kueka, and preparing for the Red Hawks’ first practice in over a week.
Despite losing two of their last three games, the Red Hawks managed to sneak into the tournament as the fifth seed with an 8-7-1 record after beating Elmira 3-0 on October 29 at Harkness Field. Kueka, who is the tournament’s fourth seed, concluded their year at 9-5-1, which included a 9-1-1 mark in the North Eastern Athletic Conference.
The winner of the RPI game will advance to play the tournament’s top seed and host school, SUNY Geneseo, on November 12 in the semifinals. The ECAC Championship game will be held on November 13 at Geneseo. Geneseo was a final four team last season and was regionally ranked in the top ten all season.
“Right now we are playing with house money,” Clinton said. “We’re in. We might as well win.”
