USIU Looks to World’s Courts : Like Its Campus, Gulls’ Tennis Team Sports Decidedly Foreign Flair

The United States International University women’s tennis team is just in its fourth year of Division 1 competition, but the Gulls have already established themselves as one of the top teams in the nation.

USIU is ranked eighth and has a 32-6 record this season. The Gulls have won 20 straight matches, and USIU’s good fortune is no fluke, either. Last year, the Gulls were 40-5 and ranked 21st. They barely missed an NCAA playoff berth.

Second-year Coach Dave Trebisky runs the tennis show at USIU, and he has fashioned a team with a distinctly foreign flavor. The Gulls have an Australian (Clare Thompson), two French-Canadians from Quebec (Julie Labonte and Sylvie Tetreault) and two South Africans (Elizma Nortje and Sanet Kock). They all attend USIU on student visas. The most recent addition to the squad is Israeli freshman Rakefet Benjamini, who enrolled at USIU three weeks ago.

It’s not too difficult to keep a head count of the Americans on the team as there’s just one--Kristi Kern, a freshman from Stockton.

That USIU has stocked up on foreign players shouldn’t be much of a surprise as 80% of the university’s students are from outside the United States.

“That’s just the way it’s worked out,” said Trebisky, who, as the son of a United Nations Ambassador, has lived all over the world. “My attitude when I took the job was if I wanted to compete, I couldn’t do it with just Americans. There are too many people looking at that pool (of players). I had to go where others weren’t looking.

“The concept of the university is to bring the world closer together--to try to make the Israelis live with the Arabs, the Americans live with the Russians. The concept is a good one. I’ve tried to build the program with that concept.”

Another part of the concept is finding good players, which Trebisky has done. For example, the Gulls’ top doubles team of Kock and Tetreault is 20-6, and Kock has a 23-6 record in singles matches. Tetreault is 19-11 in singles, and Benjamini has stepped in to win her first five singles matches.

When it comes to recruiting players, Trebisky favors small-town amateurs. He scours International Tennis Federation rankings for the most enticing prospects, then calls them.

How did Kock react when someone from California called her at home in South Bloemfontein, South Africa, telling her to attend USIU?

“My mind was blown,” Kock said. “I wasn’t thinking about anything like that happening. Dave called me and told me about the school and the program. I thought somebody was joking.”

He wasn’t.

“My pitch is if you come to USIU, I’m offering a place where you’re not gonna get lost in the shuffle or not get attention. I’m gonna take care of you,” Trebisky said. Word of mouth has also played an important role in shaping the USIU team. Tetreault told Labonte about the program, so the latter left Canada to join her childhood friend. Tetreault is also responsible for the recruiting of Thompson. The two met while playing in amateur tournaments, and Tetreault was able to sell Thompson on USIU.

Labonte is the only one of the foreigners who actually intended to pursue a collegiate tennis career in the States. She says she wrote letters to some 80 schools--including traditional women’s tennis powers such as USC, UCLA, Stanford and Trinity. But Labonte picked USIU.

“I made a good choice,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to go any place else.”

Labonte probably wasn’t feeling that way when she initially came to USIU.

“Nobody (none of the current players) was here when I came here,” said Labonte, a civil engineering major with a 3.96 GPA. “I was kind of afraid. I thought I’d feel excluded at USIU. My English was bad when I came here--I didn’t speak much.”

But Labonte, like the rest of her teammates, has adjusted to life in the United States rather well. And despite the differences in the their respective backgrounds, the women get along well with each other.

“If I had to go to an all American team, I wouldn’t be as comfortable,” Kock said. “Everyone has to give up a little bit of their culture to get along. Everyone has had to adjust a little.”

One would think that Kock and Nortje would draw much attention, since they’re both from South Africa, which practices the form of racial segregation known as apartheid. But there have been no protests at Gulls matches because of their presence.

Although South African athletes are banned from amateur events such as the Olympics and Boston Marathon, Trebisky finds nothing wrong with having two of them on his team.

“It’s good for them to be in an environment where different types of people are living together,” Trebisky said. “They’re not having any problems at USIU.”

The Gulls aren’t quite ready to challenge the upper crust of women’s college tennis, though they may not be far off. USIU had match point against No. 3 Texas earlier this season, but lost, 5-4. On the other hand, the Gulls have beaten a pair of prominent teams, UC Santa Barbara and Pepperdine.

“We have the talent to compete on an even basis with No. 3 on down,” said Trebisky, who also coaches the men’s team. “I feel No. 1 and 2 are in a class by themselves this year. We will be able to compete in the very, very near future. It’s like, ‘Watch out No. 1 and 2, we’re coming up.’ ”

The Gulls weren’t quite ready for top-ranked USC when they faced the Trojans in mid-February and were shut out, 9-0.

“I think it was a bad day,” Labonte said. “Maybe they’re stronger than us, but not (enough) to beat us 9-0.”

Barring a late-season collapse, USIU is virtually a cinch to get an NCAA playoff berth. USIU’s ascention has surprised a lot of people, but not Trebisky.

“A lot of people told athletic director Al Palmiotto he was crazy for hiring me,” Trebisky said. “I told the school when I came here that I could build a top 20 team in a year. Last year, we were No. 21. I’m kind of a dreamer--I’m not surprised. I feel we’re where I wanted us to be.”