Womens Tennis’ Isabella Harvison Named 2024 Cissie Leary Award Recipient
Baylor fifth-year graduate student Isabella Harvison has been named the 2024 Cissie Leary Award recipient for Sportsmanship in the Texas region, announced by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association on Wednesday.
"Isabella embodies the true spirit of perseverance and sportsmanship," said head coach Joey Scrivano. "Despite facing the challenges of epilepsy, she has overcome so much and continues to inspire everyone around her with her resilience and dedication. Isa's excellence both on and off the court, along with her outstanding academic achievements, makes her a deserving recipient of the Cissy Leary Sportsmanship and Perseverance Award. We are incredibly proud of her."
The ITA Cissie Leary Award for Sportsmanship goes to a Division I women's player from each region who displays inspiring dedication and commitment to her team, which has enhanced her team's performance and exemplified the spirit of college tennis. It dates back to 1997 and is in memory of the late and widely admired Penn women's tennis coach Cissie Leary.
The Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Calif., native tied for the highest singles win total on the team in the 2023-24 season with 17 victories, 12 coming from the dual match spring season spread between court Nos. 2-5. She also tallied 12 doubles victories, the most of which with Luivob Kostenko.
In the regional honors released in early June, Harvison was announced as the 14th-best singles player in the state while also boasting season-high rankings of 59 in singles and 66 in doubles.
This year's honor is the eighth in program history since 2000, joining the likes of Caudia Aguilar (2000), Karin Andersson (2001), Zuzana Krchnakova (2006), Zuzana Cerna (2007), Jordaan Sanford (2013), Blair Shankle (2016) and Theresa Van Zyl (2018).
The Bears finished 17-13 on the year, won seven games in the rugged Big 12 Conference and advanced to the NCAA Stanford Regional. It marked the 18th NCAA Tournament appearance under Coach Scrivano, the program's all-time winningest coach.