Photo by: Isabella Marley
Riffice Named SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Friday, April 22, 2022 | Men's Tennis
ATHENS, Ga. – Senior captain Sam Riffice is just the second Gator in Florida men's tennis history to be awarded the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor the conference office announced prior to Florida's match against No. 42-ranked and No 9-seeded LSU in the SEC Tournament on Friday afternoon.
Voted by the league's head coaches, Riffice joins Gator Great, Hamid Mirzadeh, as the only UF men's tennis players to receive this honor with Mirzadeh claiming the SEC's first Scholar-Athlete of the Year award in 2004.
Boasting the highest GPA among the team of 3.76, the Political Science major has added another accolade to his long list of accomplishments. Riffice is a three-time SEC Honor Roll member (2019-21), three-time ITA All-Academic selection (2019-21) and made history after being the first Gator to be named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Second Team last season.
A 2021 ITA Scholar-Athlete, Riffice also received CoSIDA Academic All-District honors (2021), is a two-time Dean's List member (Fall 2020, Spring 2021), made the 2020-21 SEC Community Service Team and has served as the tennis representative on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
Named the captain of the team his freshman season, the Orlando native has played at the No. 2 singles spot and No. 1 doubles position for the majority of his career. Last year, Riffice became the ninth player in the 21st century to win both a team and singles national championship. A four-time All-American, Riffice has also received All-SEC honors in every season of his Gator tenure and has captained the team to three-consecutive SEC Championships.
In his career, the senior totals 91 singles and 70 doubles wins. This season, Riffice holds an impressive 17-4 record in singles and went a perfect 12-0 in conference play at the two position. In addition, the senior is ranked No. 10 in doubles with sophomore Ben Shelton as the duo has 12 doubles victories together at court one.
The Gators will face the Tigers at 3 p.m. today in the quarterfinal round of the SEC Tournament.
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Voted by the league's head coaches, Riffice joins Gator Great, Hamid Mirzadeh, as the only UF men's tennis players to receive this honor with Mirzadeh claiming the SEC's first Scholar-Athlete of the Year award in 2004.
Boasting the highest GPA among the team of 3.76, the Political Science major has added another accolade to his long list of accomplishments. Riffice is a three-time SEC Honor Roll member (2019-21), three-time ITA All-Academic selection (2019-21) and made history after being the first Gator to be named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Second Team last season.
A 2021 ITA Scholar-Athlete, Riffice also received CoSIDA Academic All-District honors (2021), is a two-time Dean's List member (Fall 2020, Spring 2021), made the 2020-21 SEC Community Service Team and has served as the tennis representative on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
Named the captain of the team his freshman season, the Orlando native has played at the No. 2 singles spot and No. 1 doubles position for the majority of his career. Last year, Riffice became the ninth player in the 21st century to win both a team and singles national championship. A four-time All-American, Riffice has also received All-SEC honors in every season of his Gator tenure and has captained the team to three-consecutive SEC Championships.
In his career, the senior totals 91 singles and 70 doubles wins. This season, Riffice holds an impressive 17-4 record in singles and went a perfect 12-0 in conference play at the two position. In addition, the senior is ranked No. 10 in doubles with sophomore Ben Shelton as the duo has 12 doubles victories together at court one.
The Gators will face the Tigers at 3 p.m. today in the quarterfinal round of the SEC Tournament.
FOLLOW THE GATORS
SOCIAL: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
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