Newman Named SEC Men's Tennis Freshman of the Week
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 | Men's Tennis
University of Florida freshman Spencer Newman (Miami, Florida) has been named the Southeastern Conference's Men's Tennis Freshman of the Week, the league office announced on Wednesday. It is the first such honor of his career and comes in recognition of providing two crucial victories in UF's March 26 4-3 road win at Mississippi State.
Newman opened action on Saturday playing the first doubles match of his collegiate career, paired with fellow freshman Andrew Butz (Vero Beach, Fla.). The Gator duo got UF's doubles sweep started with an 8-4 court three victory over the Bulldogs' Artem Ilyushin and Zach White.
Newman, a January enrollee, then found himself in a heated battle on court six, dropping the first set in a tiebreaker before rebounding to force a third set. With the Gators trailing, 3-2, Newman came through in a must-win situation, taking the final set, 6-2, to even the score at 3-3 and allow UF senior Alexandre Lacroix (Paris, France) to clinch the Florida victory minutes later. Newman's three-set victory was the first of that sort in his young career, rebounding from a three-set loss in the Gators' previous outing.
“It's just like our team. We lost two that we could have won [against USC and Ole Miss],” head coach Andy Jackson said. “The thing that we said over and over in practice was, 'OK, you've just got to get right back on the horse. You can't do anything different to change USC and Ole Miss. We've just got to get ready. It's going to pop back up again, and you're going to be in that situation. Don't drop your head. You didn't really do anything wrong. Let's get after it again.' And he did, which is very difficult to do for a January freshman on the road with a few fans behind his court getting after him. But he did it.”
Newman is the second Gator to be named SEC Freshman of the Week this spring, as Butz has twice earned the honor, while Lacroix has been recognized as SEC Player of the Week two times.
The 15th-ranked Gator men (12-5, 5-1 SEC) are next in action Friday, April 1, at 3 p.m., hosting No. 14 Kentucky (18-6, 3-3 SEC) at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex.
Results for Spencer Newman, SEC Freshman of the Week
March 26 at Mississippi State
Singles – Spencer Newman def. Zach White – 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-2
Doubles – Butz/Newman def. Ilyushin/White – 8-4
Florida's 2011 SEC Honors
Jan. 26 – Andrew Butz, Freshman of the Week
Feb. 2 – Alexandre Lacroix, Player of the Week
March 8 – Andrew Butz, Freshman of the Week
March 16 – Alexandre Lacroix, Player of the Week
March 30 – Spencer Newman, Freshman of the Week
