Men’s tennis finally has a new head coach. Sander Koning is set to lead the Eagles.

Alexander “Sander” Koning is now the men’s tennis head coach. Director of Athletics Tom Kleinlein announced today that Koning will be picking up where Nick Zieziula left off as the men’s tennis program head coach.

Koning was recently the assistant men’s tennis coach at Indiana University. His main priorities were the administration and planning of the Indiana men’s tennis program.  In addition to that, he also took care of nutrition and conditioning for the team.

Before Koning had gone to Indiana University, he was working as the assistant men’s tennis coach for Old Dominion University. From 2011 to 2014, Koning helped take an unranked Old Dominion team and push them to a season high rank of 54 in the 2013 season.

As additional merits, Koning also got the Old Dominion team their highest GPA in school history. He also had four All-Academic player selections for Old Dominion during his time at the university.            

Koning is fluent in Dutch and English, and he has recruited all throughout America and Europe. For a time, he also worked for the Dutch Tennis Federation.

During his earlier years, from 2006 to 2008, Koning was a graduate teaching assistant and volunteer assistant coach for Clemson University. That was also the college Koning played at where he started at the No. 1 spot for singles and the No. 1 spot for doubles.

As a two-time all-ACC player for 2003 and 2005, and also a player that went professional for a period in his career, Koning is a well-gifted person for the job of head coach at Georgia Southern.

The Eagles are currently 2-3 on the season. Koning will be taking over this week as the Eagles are set to face off against East Carolina University at home this Saturday, Feb. 7.