Match Notes
ABOUT IDAHO STATE
The Idaho State men's tennis team will host the Griz of Montana for their third match of the season. The match will be on Friday, Jan. 27 at 3 p.m. in Reed Gym. The Bengals are 1-1 this season, coming off a 6-1 win over Utah State and a 5-2 loss to Weber State.
BENGAL MEN STANDOUTS
The ISU men return three players including junior
Nate Gross who led the Bengals last season with a 13-6 singles record at the No. 3-No. 6 positions and senior
Dan Buckingham who posted a 5-12 singles record at the 4-6 positions. ISU also welcomes Scottsdale CC transfer
Charles Norman.
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
The Bengal men's tennis team houses three international students, all from a different country. Junior
Charles Norman from South Africa, freshman
Andres Coello from Ecuador and freshman Krzyzstof Stempien from Poland.
ABOUT MONTANA
The match on Friday will be Montana's first of the season. The Griz come into their 2012 season with a number two ranking in the conference preseason poll. They return nine players, three of which are seniors. Senior Carl Kuschke received first-team All-Big Sky Conference honors for both the 2010-11 season and the 2009-10 season. Kuschke garnered a 10-8 singles record and a 7-11 doubles record last season. Sophomore Mikolaj Caruk was also an asset to the Griz last season with a singles record of 11-7 and a doubles record of 13-5.
FRESHMEN IMPRESS IN FIRST TWO MATCHES
Two of
Bobby Goeltz's freshmen have made quite an impact in the Bengals first two matches of the season. Krzyzstof Stempien and
Andres Coello are both 2-0 in singles competition so far this season. Stempien defeated Utah State's Matt Sweet in a 3-set battle in the season opener and then went on to defeat Weber State's Ramstromer Pello 6-4, 6-2 in Wednesday's match. Coello defeated Utah State's Lenny Whiting in the first match of the season 7-5, 6-2 and then defeated Weber State's Ben Rode 12-10 in three sets.
MEN SELECTED TO FINISH 7TH IN PRESEASON POLL
The Idaho State men's tennis team was tabbed to finish seventh in the Big Sky preseason poll released by the conference office. The men received 23 points, finishing ahead of Portland State (18) and Northern Colorado (9). The Bengals finished eighth in the conference last season with a Big Sky record of 1-7. The defending champions of Sacramento State were selected to finish first in the preseason poll.
STEMPIEN NAMED BENGAL ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Freshman Krzyzstof Stempien was selected as the Bengal Athlete of the Week for matches played the week of Jan. 17-23. Stempien helped the Bengals win in their season opener against Utah State Tuesday, Jan. 17. Stempien, along with his teammate
Austin Miller, managed to deafeat USU's Ballam and Wearmouth in the doubles portion of the competition. The freshman from Lodz, Poland then went on to win 12-10 in his singles match at the No. 4 position against Utah State's Matt Sweet.
