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TIB Newsletter - September
2020
Spotlight on
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Talya Zandberg
University of Arizona
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"Serving in the Israeli Army taught me many lessons, such as discipline, determination, work ethic and the ability to work with different groups of people, which has helped me tremendously as a student-athlete at Arizona."
Talya Zandberg
Sport: Women's Tennis
Major: Information Science & eSociety
Hometown: Tiberias, Israel
What does Talya Zandberg have in common with David Robinson, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio and Arnold Palmer? A lot more than you would think.
Prior to arriving to Tucson in 2018, Zandberg served in the Israeli Army for two years, a requirement for all Israeli citizens.
"Serving in the Israeli Army taught me many lessons, such as discipline, determination, work ethic and the ability to work with different groups of people, which has helped me tremendously as a student-athlete at Arizona," Zandberg said.
"Before I even joined the Israeli Army, I had to undergo physical and intellectual tests. After I passed those, I had to complete basic training that took about a month. From there, I was given orders to work in the Air Force."
Serving in the military will force you to grow up no doubt, especially when one of your duties is to stand guard on the base.
"I had to guard the base to keep everybody safe in the middle of the night," Zandberg said. "It was an incredibly strict system and it was one of the most challenging tasks I had on duty."
Imagine that. You're barely out of high school and your job is to protect the base and your fellow soldiers. That takes a tremendous amount of honor and courage.
Just because Zandberg was serving in the military didn't mean that she had to quit tennis completely. Prior to joining the Israeli Army, Zandberg was a Junior U18 Israeli Champion in 2013, so her desire to keep playing the game she loved.
"I would wake up early so I could practice, then I would go back to my base and work for the day," Zandberg said. "After I finished my day of work on base, I went back to the tennis courts to practice for a few more hours and would go back to the base to sleep."
After two years of serving her country and keeping her tennis game sharp, Zandberg arrived in the Spring of 2018 and made an immediate impact as she appeared in 26 matches and posted a 7-7 singles record in a loaded Pac-12 as a freshman.
Over the last two seasons, Zandberg has been one of Arizona's most consistent players. During her sophomore year, she led the team with 12 wins during the spring season and had 14 singles wins this past season at the No. 1 spot in the lineup before the season was cut short to COVID-19.
Now a senior, Zandberg will be looked upon as a leader, which shouldn't be a problem for her considering the mentality that was instilled in her during her time serving her country.
"Talya brings qualities that she learned in the Army to the tennis court," head coach Ryan Stotland said. "Because of her two years of service, she is more mature than most student-athletes, and she has the traits to be a great leader because of the experiences she has gone through at such a young age. She's very competitive and never gives up, and I know Talya will be a great role model to the younger kids and help guide them to what we want this program to become."
(Reprinted from the University of Arizona athletics website.)
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Honor Roll Recognition for
Israeli Athletes
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Being a student athlete at the university level is not easy. It requires dedication to both your sport and your studies. You need to stay in top form for your coach and competition, while proving yourself to your professors in the classroom. Now, take an Israeli athlete that is studying in a language that they didn't grow up speaking or reading and are thousands of miles from their family and friends and the emotional support they offer. They are living in an environment and mentality that is completely different from where they grew up and can't just hop back home for the weekend. This makes the task of being a successful student athlete much more difficult.
It is with great pride that I list some of the Israeli athletes that not only are a credit to their sport, but have excelled in the classroom as well. The following athletes have been cited as outstanding students having made the honor roll or all-academic teams in the past year as announced on their school's website:
Southern Methodist University Honor Roll: Matan Segal, Distinction, Lior Kremer, High Distinction
Illinois State: Eddie Winner, USTFCCCA All-Academic Team
Old Dominion University: Shahar Biran, ITA Scholar-Athlete
Wake Forest: Bar Botzer, ITA Scholar-Athlete
Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Yorai Shaoul, USTFCCCA All-Academic Team
North Carolina Central University: Amit Baran, ITA Scholar-Athlete
University of Arizona: Talya Zandberg, ITA Scholar-Athlete
San Jose State: Lior Ben David, named to ACWPC All-Academic Team Outstanding List with a 3.962 GPA
University of Nevada, Reno: Daniel Dudockin, All Mountain West Academic Team, 3.95 GPA in Finance
University of California, Davis: Nir Gross, WWPA Academic Honor Roll
Stonehill College: Yaniv Kovalski, cited for Academic Distinction
Mercer University: Daniel Krashin, ITA Scholar-Athlete
University of Memphis: Adam Yakobi, AAC All-Academic Team
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RUSTON – Louisiana Tech head coach Amanda Stone announced on Tuesday the 2020 fall tennis schedule which will consist of three weekend tournaments.
After having the spring season cut short back in mid-March, LA Tech is eager to get back out onto the courts starting the weekend of Oct. 9-10 in Monroe at the Warhawk Invitational.
The following week, the Lady Techsters will head to Conway, Arkansas to take part in the UCA Fall Tournament on Oct. 16-18. The fall slate will round out on Nov. 6-8 in Nacogdoches, Texas at the SFA Fall Tournament.
"I'm really happy for a lot of reasons for our fall season to start," said Stone who enters her fifth season at the helm. "I'm very grateful that we are able to compete with everything that is going on. After our season was cut short last spring, our returners are really motivated to be back in action."
LA Tech will have a blend of returners and newcomers on this year's roster. Claudia Oravcova is the lone senior on the squad, returning with almost 70 total victories under her belt. The Slovakia native already has registered 35 career dual doubles wins which is tied for the 10th most in program history.
Junior Ilana Tetruashvili, (Holon, ISRAEL) enters her third year with the program. The Israel native has a combined 43 wins with fall/spring, including a 21-11 mark in doubles.
Map of Israeli Students in the US
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ABOUT THE ISRAELBRIDGE
Who We Are:
Ross Greenstein, former Scholarship for Athletes President and Founder of The Israel Bridge
Dan Aronovic, Head of Operations, The Israel Bridge
Our Vision:
The Israel Bridge will work to be the largest resource for connecting and developing relationships between Israelis and Americans.
Current activities:
Finding athletic scholarships for deserving Israeli athletes in the US. We have helped over 170 athletes attending schools like Harvard, Princeton, Northwestern, Ohio State, University of Washington, Cal-Berkeley, USC, UCLA, Maryland, UNLV, Rutgers, Arizona, Arizona State, Georgia Tech, University of San Francisco and many others.
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