ITA Ranks Men's Tennis in Regional Top-10
6/6/2013 3:52:00 PM | Men's Tennis
STATESBORO, Ga. - Led by Rayane Djouad's 14-3 dual match record, Georgia Southern's men's tennis team finished eighth in the ITA's Southeast Regional rankings.
The Eagles posted their first winning season since 2009 and finished with an 11-9 record and a 6-4 mark in Southern Conference play during the the 2013 season. They finished behind South Florida and ahead of Georgia Tech and Central Florida in the regional rankings.
"The recognition that we received in the regional rankings is a great step for this program. Next year we need to build on the momentum that we built in April with some big wins and carry that into a national ranking and a NCAA appearance," said Head Coach Nick Zieziula.
Djouad finished in the top-20 of the individual regional rankings and was tied with Florida's Gordon Watson and Georgia's Marco Nunez for 20th place. The freshman posted a 22-5 overall mark with a 14-3 record in dual play and an 8-2 fall tournament record. Djouad showed marked improvement as the season went on, starting the season at the five position but ending it as the number one.
"I'm proud of the improvement that Rayane showed over the course of the year. We try to emphasize improvement in this program, get a little better each day and that is what he did throughout the year and is still doing through his summer training," said Zieziula.
GSU reached the quarterfinals of the SoCon tournament with a 4-0 sweep of The Citadel. The Eagles made one of their biggest improvements in school history by winning eight more matches than a year ago. The Eagles posted wins over both championship match participants Elon and Samford along with victories against Kennesaw State, Mercer, Wofford, Furman and Appalachian State.
Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics and twitter.com/GSAthletics, and its "Eagles GATA" mobile app for Android and iOS.
