Zieziula named to St. Francis Hall of Fame

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Will Cheney

Georgia Southern University’s men’s tennis head coach Nick Zieziula was elected to the St. Francis High School Hall of Fame earlier this month.

Zieziula is a 2001 graduate of St. Francis, which is located in Athol Springs, N.Y., right outside of Buffalo.

While there Zieziula lettered in tennis, football and soccer. He helped lead the tennis team to four straight All-Catholic championships and kicked the game-winning field goal to give St. Francis its first league football championship in three seasons. He also helped lead the soccer team to the Monsignor Martin championship in 1998.

In 2001, Zieziula was awarded the St. Francis Man of the Year award. Upon graduation, he went on to attend the University of Buffalo, where he is ranked second in career singles victories with 69, first in career doubles victories with 65 and first in combined victories with 134.

Zieziula has been the GSU men’s tennis head coach since 2010 and led the program to a major turnaround.

A 2012 season that saw a 3-20 overall record with a 1-9 record in the Southern Conference was put to rest with his squad’s performance in 2013.

GSU went 11-9 overall and 6-4 in the Southern Conference, marking the first winning season for the program since 2009.  Key victories included a win over Furman, the second in 10 seasons, and a win over Elon, the first since 2005. GSU also topped The Citadel in the first round of the SoCon Tournament.

The season also saw sophomore Andrew Dromsky named first-team All-SoCon and freshman Rayane Djouad named SoCon Freshman of the Year after posting a 14-3 (9-1 SoCon) record. Djouad is the first rookie to receive the honor since 2003.