ISU Bengal

Issue date: 1/25/06 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Megan Isaak Pablo Garces serving against Northern Arizona in the doubles competition last Saturday.

If the ISU men's tennis team was to parade their country's flag, one might think they were watching the Olympics. Throw in two from Spain, one from Belarus, one from Japan, one from Zimbabwe, and another from Croatia and you get a team that is about as international as it gets.

Bobby Goeltz is the 16 year veteran tennis coach at ISU. Previous to coming to Idaho State, he coached tennis at the University of Maryland for a few seasons. Goeltz is unique in what he does because, unlike many universities tennis programs that have a separate coach for men's and women's tennis teams, Goeltz coaches them both.

The preseason polls have just come out and project the men's team to finish 6th out of 7 in the conference, and the women's team to finish 7th out of 7 in the conference.

Both the men's and women's tennis teams consist of 7 to 8 players and require a minimum of 6 players to compete in every match. Between the men's and women's teams, there are 3 seniors, 4 juniors, 3 sophomores, and 5 freshmen.

The men's tennis team has gotten off to a hot start, kicking off its season with a 4-3 win over Utah State on January 18. They followed that up with a 5-2 beating of Northern Arizona, Saturday at Reed Gym. The Bengals are now 2-0 on the young season.

In a little over a week, the Bengals will play a weekend tournament in Las Vegas, but the next Conference match for the men will be March 18 against Sacramento State.

Ivan Morferdin, of Croatia, is one of the key players on the men's side. He likes what he sees in this team.

"This year will be a pretty good team, both in conference play and out of conference play," he said. "We've got two new guys from Argentina and New Jersey that will be great players. And they're both freshmen, not transfers."

The women will kick off their season February 7 at 1:00 PM, here at home against Utah State. Katie Ziggars, a native of Meridian, Idaho sees good things on the women's side as well.

"We'll do well this year," she said. "We've picked up some new players that will help fill out the team and add depth to the lineup. People should come support. Every play is new and exciting to watch!"

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