Travis Kriens

The SDSU men’s and women’s tennis teams concluded play at the Omaha Collegiate Championships on Oct. 4, as freshman Jameson Goetz went a perfect 3-0 in singles play. In a round robin format, Goetz barely won his first round match in No. 3 singles against his opponent from host school Creighton. Goetz won the first set 7-5 before dropping the second 4-6. He went on to win the third set in dramatic fashion, 17-15.

The next two rounds were a bit easier, as Goetz defeated both of his opponents from Nebraska-Omaha 6-1, 6-2 in the second and 6-3, 6-3 in the third round.

“He is probably playing a little lower than he should be right now, but he’s only a freshman and you have got to see how he develops early on,” said head coach Don Hanson.

“He has been absolutely outstanding given the competition that he has been up against,” he said. “He has a great disposition to play tennis in that he is very calm and organized.”

In Flight A Doubles, Justin Pyle and Jamie Dash defeated teammates Evan Sims and Goetz 8-1 to win the consolation finals.

Dash had some hard luck in the Flight A singles after winning his first round matchup 6-1, 6-1 vs. Nebraska-Omaha. A second round pairing against Gabe Nagy of Creighton did not go Dash’s way as he lost 6-4, 3-6, 10-7. Another three-set loss followed in the third round 4-6, 7-5, 10-2

Dominic Rossetto and Dan Tully’s team finished second in the Flight B singles, falling to a team from Creighton 8-3.

On the women’s side, it was an all-SDSU final on the consolation side of Flight C as Katie Elifson defeated Bethany Goeden in straight sets 6-3, 6-1.

“It does us some good because it shows us their skills against each other in a real match situation,” Hanson said.

Junior Nellie Bloomberg finished third in Flight D singles competition by defeating her opponent from South Dakota 6-2, 6-0.

Hanson is beginning to see the team improve and develop into a team that can compete as the Division I level.

“After an absolutely incredible weekend where we won 30 times between the men and women -more than we have ever won at this tournament- we have shown that we have reached parity with other Division I schools,” the coach said. “What is even more surprising is that we could have done even better. I am very happy and impressed with how we played.”

Hanson also announced that SDSU will be hosting the first ever Jackrabbit Invitational tennis tournament next fall (Sept. 10-12) with numerous Summit League teams scheduled to play.

The women return to the court this weekend, Oct. 9-11, at the Hinds-Kellogg Classic at Macomb, Ill. hosted by Summit League member Western Illinois.

The men have the weekend off before heading to Fayetteville, Ark. to compete at the Arkansas Invitational in two weeks, Oct. 16-17.

“It was a great weekend and we are looking forward to these next couple of weeks, because it will really show us where we are at,” said Hanson.