Zetts, Fraley YSU’s Athletes of Year

The two winners received their awards Thursday presented by The Vindicator.

YOUNGSTOWN — Tom Zetts and Jessica Fraley were recipients of the Youngstown State Male and Female Athletes of the Year, presented Thursday by The Vindicator.

Zetts finished his career as the football team’s career record holder in passing yards, completions, attempts, completion percentage, touchdowns and games started.

He was also a three-team first team Academic All-Gateway selection and a three-time Football Championship Subdivision Academic All-Star.

The Penguins were 26-10 with Zetts as starting quarterback his final three seasons, winning Gateway Conference championships in 2005 and 2006.

A graduate of Boardman High School, he is the son of Tom and Jackie Zetts. Zetts is majoring in Integrated Mathematics (Secondary Education) and he has a 3.68 grape-point average.

Persistence paid off in a big way for Fraley during her senior season as a member of the YSU volleyball team.

After battling injuries as a sophomore and a junior, Fraley became the second YSU volleyball athlete to earn first team All-Horizon League honors in 2007.

She had 427 kills in 2007, the fourth-most in school history and the third-highest total in the Horizon League for the year.

She tallied 316 digs, 79 blocks, 31 assists and 22 service aces.

Fraley averaged 3.50 kills and 2.59 digs per game. She also had 1,176 total attempts, the third-most in a single season in school history.

Fraley had double figures in kills 25 times and double figures in digs on 20 occasions.

The Penguins won 12 matches for the first time since 2000 and won five league matches, one more than they had won in the previous six seasons combined.

Fraley was also a first team Academic All-Horizon League selection and a third-team CoSIDA Academic All-District selection. She was just the second YSU volleyball player since 2001 to earn academic all-district laurels.

Fraley also was named the team’s most valuable player for her efforts last season.

A native of LaGrange and graduate of Keystone High School, she is the daughter of Tim and Christine Buckley. Majoring in telecommunications, she owns a 3.87 grade-point average.