St. John’s soccer: Season recap as Johnnies miss postseason

St. John’s soccer misses out on the postseason, falling to Marquette in the season finale 

The St. John’s soccer team wrapped up a disappointing 2022 campaign on November 2 with a hefty 5-1 defeat to Marquette on the road.

The Red Storm finished the season 4-8-5 overall (2-4-4 Big East) to finish 8th in the conference to miss out on the postseason.

It’s the first full season, other than the shortened Spring 2021 season, where the Red Storm have completely missed the postseason since 2016.

While the defense had some glaring performances and suffered some lopsided defeats, which the Red Storm have rarely experienced recently in the regular season, the offense was the main issue.

Marist transfer Antek Sienkiel led the team with seven goals along with two assists, but after three goals in his first four games of the season, he only had four goals and two assists in his final 14 appearances.

ALSO READ: Season review following loss to Xavier

The main issue is that the Johnnies scored just 18 goals in 17 games this season. Scoring just over a goal per game puts an incredible strain on the defense to be perfect. something the Red Storm were not this season.

The 18 goals scored were good for 10th best in the conference.

While the program is built on defense, and that surely is not a bad thing, in order to have a better campaign in 2023 the offense must drastically improve.

There are some key players to replace as well as midfielders Brandon Knapp and Einar Lye will graduate.

Knapp, in particular, was such an asset for Dr. Dave Masur being so versatile to play virtually anywhere on the field.

It was a down year for the Big East overall as just two programs were selected to the NCAA Tournament, perennial powerhouse Georgetown and the new Big East Champions in Creighton.

St. John’s soccer to see new wrinkle to Big East Soccer in 2023

Earlier this week, the Big East Conference announced that the University of Akron will join the conference in men’s soccer.

Akron has an 11-3-5 (5-0-3 in the Mid-American Conference) record this year, winning its 21st regular season title and earning the No.16 seed and a first-round bye in the NCAA Tournament.

The Zips will host Pittsburgh in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday as they try to keep its season going.

Since 2007, the Zips have won the 2010 National Championship and made three College Cup Appearances.

ALSO READ: St. John’s overcomes awful start to blowout Nebraska

This addition will bring the number of Big East men’s soccer teams to 12 as the conference also announced that the Big East will now separate into two divisions of six.

The Midwest Division will be comprised of Akron, Butler, Creighton, Xavier, DePaul, Marquette and the East consists of UConn, St. John’s, Providence, Georgetown, Villanova, and Seton Hall.

League play will now shrink from ten games to eight, so it will be interesting how this can alter scheduling, especially for the non-conference slate in 2023.