The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Spizzirri earns second ITA National Player of the Year honor, Braswell named National Senior Player of the Year
06.13.2024 | Men's Tennis
Eliot Spizzirri becomes the first Longhorn and fourth player nationally to twice finish No. 1, while Micah Braswell becomes the second-straight and third overall Texas player to be chosen National Senior of the Year.
Austin – Texas Men's Tennis senior Eliot Spizzirri was named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Men's Tennis National Player of the Year for the second-straight season, while senior Micah Braswell was chosen as the National Senior Player of the Year, the organization announced Thursday.
Spizzirri closed the season ranked No. 1 in singles, leading to the National Player of the Year honor. He is just the second different Longhorn to hold the top singles spot at the end of the season since the rankings began in 1981, along with Steve Bryan in 1990, while he became the fourth player nationally to do it twice.
Braswell becomes the second-straight and third overall Texas player to be chosen National Senior of the Year, an award which also began in 1981, following Spizzirri last season and Søren Hess-Olesen in 2015.
This season, Spizzirri also repeated as Big 12 Player of the Year and in earning ITA All-America honors in both singles and doubles. He concluded the season with a 29-6 overall record, including 21-4 in dual matches, playing on the top line in all of those. Fourteen of his 29 wins came against top-50 opponents with 12 of those against the top-25. In the fall, Spizzirri won the singles title at the ITA All-American Championships
In doubles, Spizzirri finished in the top-15 of the rankings with two different partners in Harper at No. 13 and senior Siem Woldeab at No. 15, making him just the sixth player since 1981 to accomplish that feat. He and Harper then attained All-America status by reaching the semifinals of the NCAA Doubles Championship. Overall, Spizzirri posted a 24-13 doubles record this year, while Harper was 30-11. They played the first part of the season together, and even though the Longhorns shifted their doubles lineup midway through the spring, they reunited to play in the NCAA doubles tournament. There, they won three straight matches over the No. 17, No. 2, and No. 11 ranked pairs to reach the semifinals. Earlier in the fall, they also reached the final of the ITA All-American Championships.
Spizzirri finished his Texas career as one of the winningest players in combined singles and doubles victories in program history with 218 wins, including 113 in singles and 105 in doubles. The 113 singles wins rank fifth at UT, and his .785 winning percentage is fourth.
Tabbed the Texas Region Player of the Year yesterday, Braswell produced one of the most dominant singles seasons in program history this year, amassing a 40-3 overall record that included a perfect 22-0 mark in dual matches at No. 2, and a 37-match winning streak, while securing 17 top-50 wins. An ITA All-American in singles, he finished No. 3 in the final rankings, and during one of the two weeks (Feb. 7) when Spizzirri was not No. 1, it was Braswell in that spot for the first time in his career. Outside of that, he held the No. 2 spot during most of the spring season.
Braswell won the singles title at the ITA National Fall Championships to combine with Spizzirri for a Texas sweep of the fall majors for just the second time in program history and the first time by two different players. It also marked just the fourth time different players from the same school combined to win the two titles. That came on the heels of Braswell also winning the ITA Texas Regionals title.
Braswell concluded his UT career with 119 singles wins, which is third all-time in school history, trailing Paul Koscielski by just one for second place, and Jack Brasington by just two for first. His .778 winning percentage is No. 6 in program history.
