Austin, Texas – No. 12 Men’s Tennis earned several Big 12 Men’s Tennis postseason awards, including Pierre-Yves Bailly as Freshman of the Year, five All-Big 12 selections with two of those on the first team, and an individual doubles champion, the conference announced Thursday.
The All-Big 12 team honorees included first-team selections in sophomore Micah Braswell in singles and the duo of senior Richard Ciamarra and sophomore Cleeve Harper in doubles, along with three second-team honorees in Bailly and sophomore Eliot Spizzirri in singles, and the pair of Spizzirri and sophomore Siem Woldeab in doubles.
The conference also honored individual champions at each position based on record in conference play with Ciamarra and Harper earning it at No. 1 Doubles with a 3-0 mark.
It marks the second-straight season Texas has had the Freshman of the Year with Braswell earning the honor in 2021. Meanwhile, Bailly becomes the sixth Longhorn overall to receive it, joining Braswell, Christian Sigsgaard (2017), Ed Corrie (2008), Brandon Hawk (1999) and Nick Crowell (1997).
Despite a mid-season injury that caused him to miss five matches, Bailly has won his last five singles decisions and reached as high as No. 17 in the ITA singles rankings in February. He has four wins against top-50 opponents, including over No. 3 Ben Shelton in the Longhorns’ 4-3 win against No. 5 Florida at the ITA Indoors.
This is also the second-straight season Braswell, Spizzirri and Woldeab have earned All-Big 12 recognition with Braswell named to the singles second team, Spizzirri to singles and doubles first teams, and Woldeab joining Spizzirri on the doubles first team last year. For Harper, it is the second-straight year he has earned an individual championship after being co-champion at No. 4 Singles last season. Conference awards were not issued following the 2020 season, which was cut short by the pandemic prior to conference matches being played.
Braswell, who missed the Big 12 Championship due to injury, had won 15 of his last 18 singles decisions prior to that with 15 of his last 16 matches coming at No. 1. He is 24-11 overall this year, including 16-5 in dual matches.
Spizzirri has battled through injury all year going back to September, missing all of fall singles play, while being limited in the spring. Despite that, he has won eight of his last 10 singles matches and is 10-6 overall in dual match play. Having also been limited doubles, Spizzirri reunited with his traditional partner in Woldeab in March and the duo has since won seven of their last nine doubles decisions, including victories against two top-15 opponents, and rising as high as No. 11 in the latest ITA doubles rankings.
Ciamarra and Harper have spent the last four weeks in the top four of the doubles rankings, posting a 10-5 record in dual matches overall with four ranked wins in that span that include one over the No. 2 pair of Luc Fomba and Jake Fearnley of TCU. Earlier in the fall, they twice defeated Trey Hilderbrand and Bogdan Pavel of UCF when they were ranked No. 3 and No. 22.
Texas is awaiting selection to this year’s NCAA Tournament with the brackets being revealed on Monday, May 2, at 5 p.m. CT on NCAA.com.
2022 Texas Big 12 Postseason Awards
Freshman of the Year
Pierre-Yves Bailly
All-Big 12 Team
First Team
Micah Braswell, Singles
Richard Ciamarra/Cleeve Harper, Doubles
Second Team
Pierre-Yves Bailly, Singles
Eliot Spizzirri, Singles
Eliot Spizzirri/Siem Woldeab, Doubles
Individual Champion
Richard Ciamarra/Cleeve Harper, No. 1 Doubles