Staff And Wire Reports

The SDSU men’s tennis team started its 2009 season with a doubles win Sept. 18 at the Drake Invitational.

The freshmen duo of Jameson Goetz and Dan Tully picked up an 8-3 victory over Southern Illinois-Edwardsville before losing their second-round match up against Gustavus Adolphus.

The pairs of Justin Pyle and Evan Sims and Australians Jamie Dash and Dominic Rossetto each reached the second round via byes.

A day after being part of the only SDSU doubles team to earn a victory, Goetz was the only Jackrabbit men’s tennis player to pick up a victory in the first round of singles competition on Sept. 19.

Goetz defeated Jeremy Knipp of Southern Illinois-Edwardsville in the ‘B’ Flight singles in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1. Goetz fell to James McKie of Drake in the quarterfinals.

“We consider the Drake Invitational an outstanding success in that we beat, in individual matches because it is an individual tournament, every school there except Minnesota,” said head coach Don Hanson.

Also, in the ‘B’ Flight, Dash dropped straight sets to Sergey Dulin of Drake 6-4, 6-3. Dash would come back in the consolation round with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Niko Karnop of Gustavus Adolphus.

Fellow Australian Rossetto joined Dash in the semi-finals of the consolation bracket at Rossetto defeated Ryan Lane from Northern Colorado 6-4, 6-3

In ‘A’ Flight singles, junior Cody Malik from Rapid City dropped a pair of sets 6-4, 6-4 to J.T. Christian from Creighton.

The Drake Invitational concluded on Sept. 20 with unofficial matches for the Jacks.

“It showed that we could match up with everybody there,” Hanson said. “It was a very exciting weekend for us in that it was the most wins (five) we have ever had at the Drake tournament. To beat at least one player from every school was an outstanding achievement. The guys really put in a big effort, and it was really exciting to see. Everybody played really well, and we were really impressed.”

The Jackrabbit men return to the court on Oct. 2 with a weekend tournament at Omaha, Neb.

“I am looking forward to going to Creighton and see what we can do down there,” said Hanson.

The woman kick their season off on Sept. 25 with the Pierre Classic. North Dakota, Augustana, Northern State and Mankato State will compete with the Jacks in Pierre.