Men's Tennis
- Title:
- Head Men's Coach
- Email:
- pgoebel@memphis.edu
- Phone:
- 901-678-5309
Paul Goebel was hired in 2004 as the head coach of the men's tennis program at the University of Memphis. Goebel had spent the previous five seasons as an assistant coach with the Tigers.
The 2019-20 season featured a road-heavy schedule for the Tigers, with just two completed matches at home for Memphis. After struggling out of the gates to start the spring, the momentum had shifted in favor of the Tigers before COVID-19 stopped the season, with wins in four of the last five outings of the spring. The team defeated No. 46 LSU in dominant fashion in what became the final match of the spring.
Despite losing Ryan Peniston and Andrew Watson, the Tigers defended home court in 2018-19, compiling a 9-2 record in the Bluff City. The doubles team of Oscar Cutting and David Stevenson earned all-conference honors, marking 17 AAC all-conference honors awarded to student-athletes under Goebel’s tutelage during his head coaching tenure.
Goebel saw his deepest run in the NCAA Tournament in the spring of 2018. After an impressive 18-6 spring record that included a 5-0 conference schedule, seniors Ryan Peniston and Andrew Watson were named to the AAC’s all-conference team for both singles and doubles play. Peniston became the fifth Tiger to qualify for the singles portion of the tournament, while the Peniston-Watson tandem were just the second duo in school history to qualify in doubles. Peniston advanced to the round of 16, while the doubles team advanced all the way to the semifinals, the best finish in Memphis history.
Adding to the list of accolades Goebel has acquired over his career, 2016-17 saw Goebel take another squad to the NCAA Tournament. With a 15-9 record and another all-conference season from Ryan Peniston, Memphis battled an incredibly tough schedule, facing 11 nationally ranked programs. A run of ten wins in 11 matches in the middle of the spring aided a run to reach Goebel’s fifth NCAA Tournament appearance at Memphis.
Memphis landed an NCAA Tournament berth in 2016 after a successful spring that saw wins over storied programs like Louisville, Vanderbilt and Harvard. In all, five top-50 wins earned a spot in the Tournament, lifting the team to national prominence. Led by Andrew Watson and Ryan Peniston, the Tigers added a fourth NCAA appearance in five years.
The 2014-15 season saw continued success for the Tigers as they compiled a 15-8 record. Dominant at home, Memphis was 10-1 in the Bluff City. The Tigers captured five awards from the AAC, including a pair of First-Team All-Conference nods from Connor Glennon and Andrew Watson, and all-conference doubles honors for Glennon and Kai Lemke.
In 2013-14, the Tigers established a number of program benchmarks. The doubles team of David O'Hare and Joe Salisbury started the spring dual season ranked No. 3 in the country, the highest-ever national ranking for a Tigers' doubles tandem. The duo became just the third Memphis doubles entry to qualify for the main draw of the ITA All-American, where they strung together a run to the quarterfinals, the deepest a Memphis entry has ever gone in the draw. Less than two weeks later, the duo became the first Tigers in program history to defeat the No. 1 ranked doubles team in the country when they upset the team of Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese of Tennessee, 8-4, in the semifinals of the ITA Ohio Valley Regionals in Knoxville. They went on to win the ITA Regional doubles crown, another program first, qualifying for the ITA Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, where they advanced to the Round of 16. The duo closed out their impressive collegiate careers by appearing in the NCAA Doubles draw. Goebel was named the ITA Ohio Valley Region Coach of the Year for his team’s season.
Memphis entered the 2014 spring dual season with some major team momentum as well. After making its first-ever NCAA tournament appearance in 2012, the Tigers won two matches in the 2013 NCAA tournament, making the program's first-ever appearance in the Round of 16 and finishing the season ranked No. 20 in the country, the program's highest-ever team ranking. Memphis would head in to the 2014 NCAA tournament against a familiar foe, Drake University, defeating the Bulldogs in a 4-3 thriller, advancing to the NCAA Second Round for a second straight season.
Individually, the Tigers captured a program-best 10 conference post season honors, including sophomore Connor Glennon earning the Conference USA Player of the Year award and Goebel earning his second conference coach of the year honor. Juniors David O'Hare and Joe Salisbury were named first team, all-conference in doubles, while Glennon and junior Cedric De Zutter earned second team all-conference doubles honors. In singles play, Glennon was named first team, while Salisbury and junior Johnny Grimal were named second team in singles play. Salisbury also grabbed an academic honor, being voted to the conference's all-academic team.
Since taking over as the program's head coach after spending the previous five seasons as the assistant coach, Goebel has guided Tigers to 18 all-conference honors, including Glennon's Player of the Year honor in 2013 and freshman of the year honor in 2012 and Amrit Narasimhan's Newcomer of the Year honor in 2007.
A program that ranked No. 73 in the country at the end of Goebel's first season at the helm, the Tigers spent the entire 2013 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) national rankings, capturing their first-ever C-USA tournament crown. After starting the 2011-12 season not among the national rankings, Memphis broke into the national rankings the second week of the season and has remained there since, a streak of 32 straight polls heading in to the 2013-14 season.
Of the 14 times in program history a Tiger has earned first-team, all-conference honors, Goebel has been the head coach of the program for 13 of them. He coached Jorge Vazquez to a 2009 first-team honor. Johnny Grimal and David O'Leary were named first team singles honorees in 2012, and were joined by Connor Glennon. Glennon then became the first Tiger in school history to earn repeat first-team all-conference honors with his award in 2013, ending his career as a four-time, first-team all-conference honoree. Since joining The American, Joe Salisbury (1x), Andrew Watson (2x) and Ryan Peniston (3x) have added themselves to the list. The one other Tiger that earned first-team, all-conference honors that preceded Goebel's taking over the team is former Tiger, and current Lady Tigers head coach, Lee Taylor Walker. Goebel was an assistant for the Tigers while Walker was earning his first team honor and eventually earning a spot on the C-USA All-Decade Team in 2005.
Goebel has also raised the level of expectations off the court. Two of his men's tennis teams have earned C-USA Sport Academic Awards (honoring the highest team GPA among each conference sport), in 2010-11 and 2005-06. Of the 30 C-USA commissioner's academic medalists, 18 of them have come since Goebel took over the program.
Memphis has earned ITA All-Academic Team honors 15 times in school history, with Goebel as head coach for 12 of them. In program history, Tigers have received 48 ITA Scholar-Athlete awards, 41 of them coached by Goebel.
A native of Hendersonville, N.C., Goebel came to Memphis after a stellar career at Middle Tennessee, where he was part of the school's first All-America doubles team, which earned him a place in the MTSU Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008. Goebel became the second men's tennis player to be inducted into the Middle Tennessee Hall of Fame. A member of the MTSU team from 1990-1994, Goebel served as the team's captain from 1992-1994 and was a four-time, all-conference player. He was also named the student-athlete of the year in 1994.
Following his collegiate playing career, Goebel served as a student assistant coach in 1995 at Middle Tennessee, while also playing professionally. He graduated from MTSU in 1995.
Goebel moved to Memphis and became a tennis professional at The Racquet Club of Memphis beginning in 1996. At The Racquet Club, Goebel taught top national and southern-ranked juniors and has coached in a variety of area training centers, zonals and national team events. In 1999, Goebel was ranked No. 1 in the nation in the "Men's 25 and Over" age group.
He sits on various NCAA tennis committees and has won two conference coach of the year awards (2012, 2013).
He and his wife, Shelly, have four children.
