POCATELLO, Idaho – Early last spring, women's tennis Head Coach
Gretchen Maloney received an email from two very impressive young tennis players. Then-high school seniors
Huibre-Mare Botes and
Louise-Mare Botes both ranked in the top-10 in South Africa for their age group in singles and had an equally successful doubles resume, but they had yet to commit to play at the collegiate level.
"They wrote me early on, maybe in March, and we just kept in correspondence," Maloney said. "I didn't find out that they were committing until about June. So it was really late."
Maloney had only seen the Botes sisters on video, and she referenced a few of their previous tournament results to make a decision.
"It was just kind of a wing and a prayer, and I got really lucky."
Maloney's leap of faith has paid off. The Botes twins rank No. 1 and No. 2 on the team in singles play and lead the Bengals in doubles play. Louise-Mare boasts a team-best 12-3 overall singles record with an undefeated 8-0 mark in conference play while Huibre-Mare sits at 11-4 overall and 7-1 in conference play. As a duo, they are 6-5 overall in doubles with a 4-1 mark in Big Sky, and both have earned Big Sky Player of the Week honors, the first weekly honors bestowed upon the women's tennis program since 2006.
But their journey to the Gem State was unique from others. Natives of Bloemfontein, South Africa, Louise-Mare and Huibre-Mare grew up playing a multitude of sports and decided to focus on tennis around the time they entered high school. They climbed to the top of the country's amateur rankings, and by 10th grade their traveling schedule was so grueling they opted for home schooling the remainder of their high school years.
"I love being in school because I'm a very social person, but homeschool was quite nice because you could do things on your own terms," Huibre-Mare said. "It taught me a lot of self-discipline."
The sisters continued to progress, becoming the East Africa Junior ITF Doubles champions in 2014 as well as representing South Africa for the U14, U16 and U18 tennis teams. But as their high school graduation drew closer, the sisters still hadn't committed to play collegiate tennis.
"At first my sister and I wanted to go to other schools, but then it didn't work out the way we wanted it to," Louise-Mare said. "We could have split and gone to different schools. We were on the point of doing that, but then luckily we met Gretchen."
The Botes sisters loved the second-year head coach and decided to take their own leap of faith, committing together to play for Idaho State without ever having set foot on campus.
"We decided that this might be the best place for us because it's not such a big school, the tennis program looked very good and we wanted to come to the United States to get a better education," Huibre-Mare said.
Louise-Mare and Huibre-Mare, along with seven other freshmen, make up the 2016-17 Bengals, the youngest team in the Big Sky, and they are vying for a spot in the Big Sky tournament. If they qualify, it will be the first time since 2004 that the Bengals have advanced to post-season play.
"It's fun," Huibre-Mare said. "I have [eight] other sisters; we are really close. I think it's good we are only freshmen because there's nothing like, 'I'm older than you, so listen to me.' We can all go through the same experiences at the same time and it's so much fun. I like it a lot."
Given their individual success on the court, it's hard to believe their transition has been anything but smooth. Both Huibre-Mare and Louise-Mare acknowledged there was a learning curve, but that they've both settled in nicely with their new team in their new home.
"I like it here; it's small, but all the people are really friendly and I like the fact that it's not as big of university," Louise-Mare said. "Here, I am more dependent on other people, but it's also built my relationship with some of my teammates, which I didn't have at home. It was just me and my sister every single day homeschooling together, practicing together and here, I'm doing that with other people. I think it's a really good skill to have, not just in tennis but also later in life."
There are three more guaranteed matches in the regular-season for the Botes sisters and the rest of the Bengals. Of the Big Sky teams eligible to make post-season play, the Bengals rank fourth overall with a 5-3 conference record and a shot at making the Big Sky Conference tournament for the first time in 13 seasons.
"I love it," Maloney said. "I think it's going to be great. I love this team and I'm excited to see how far they can go. The whole team, they have so much talent and if we keep working hard, I think they are going to be really, really strong."
Catch Huibre-Mare, Louise-Mare and the rest of the Bengals this weekend in their final homestand of the season as they face Idaho on Friday, April 14 at 12 p.m. followed by Eastern Washington April 15 at 10 a.m. Click here to access the team's schedule.
