Three from Men’s Tennis earn ITA All-America honors – University of Texas Athletics

Austin – Three from Texas Men’s Tennis officially received All-America honors from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) on Thursday. Seniors Eliot Spizzirri and Micah Braswell received the accolades in singles, while the duo of Spizzirri and senior Cleeve Harper did so in doubles.

For Spizzirri, they are the sixth and seventh All-America honors of his career with three in singles (2021, ’23, ’24) and four-straight in doubles (2021-24), and it is the third time he has earned both in the same year after doing so previously in 2021 and 2023. Meanwhile, Harper garnered them in doubles for a third-straight year, and Braswell received his second-straight nod in singles.

This season, Spizzirri repeated as Big 12 Player of the Year, along with once again finishing ranked No. 1 in singles by the ITA. He became the fourth player nationally to twice finish as the top-ranked singles player since the ITA rankings began in 1981. Last year’s ITA National Player of the Year, Spizzirri is on pace to earn that award again when it is announced at a later time. 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

Spizzirri also finished in the top-15 of the ITA doubles 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 and Harper finished their Texas careers as two of the winningest players in combined singles and doubles victories in program history. Spizzirri closed with 218, including 113 in singles and 105 in doubles, while Harper had 212, including 94 in singles and 118 in doubles. Spizzirri’s 113 singles wins rank fifth at UT, and his .785 winning percentage is fourth.

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. He finished No. 3 in the final singles 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.