Haley Giavara has been a Southern California junior and collegiate star for many years. She is also a Southern California Tennis Association Foundation scholarship alumni, who has recently achieved the pinnacle of prestigious collegiate success. The No. 1 from UC Berkeley women’s tennis team, she was named the 2023 Pac-12 Women’s Tennis Scholar-Athlete of the Year, announced by the conference prior to the Golden Bears’ opening match at the Pac-12 Championships. The award, which is presented in each of the 24 sports the Pac-12 sponsors, was established to honor collegiate student-athletes who have distinguished themselves both academically and in their respective sport disciplines.

The senior from San Diego has maintained a 3.55 GPA while working towards bachelor degrees in both legal studies and sociology. Giavara has excelled academically, and was named a member of both the 2021 and 2022 Pac-12 Spring Academic Honor Rolls and is the second Golden Bear to receive the Women’s Tennis Scholar Athlete of the Year award (Jana Juricova – 2012).

A two-time All-Pac-12 selection (2021, 2022), Giavara has been named Pac-12 Player of the Week twice and is a two-time ITA Singles All-American (2020, 2022). The senior ended her rookie season with an All-America honor, as well as an ITA Northwest Region Rookie of the Year award, and played key parts in Cal’s 2021 Pac-12 Tournament and 2022 regular-season titles. In her collegiate career, Giavara has boasted an impressive 41-33 singles record and 43-23 doubles record.

Haley Giavara- Photo credit PAC12.com

At NCAAs, Giavara has competed in two Singles Championships, making it to the round of 64 (2021) and round of 16 (2022), and one Doubles Championships round of 32 (2021), ranking as high as 15th in singles and 31st in doubles. The senior has also competed, and reached the quarterfinals, in the Women’s Collegiate Classic, ITA Northwest Regional Championships and Oracle ITA National Fall Championships.

“We are so proud of Haley’s accomplishments and it has been an honor to be a part of her tennis journey,” said Linda Milan, the Executive Director for the Southern California Tennis Association Foundation. “She has excelled at every level from juniors to college and she has exemplified what it means to work hard on and off the court.”

In order to be eligible for the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, student-athletes must be a senior (in athletics eligibility) on track to receive a degree, have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher, participate in at least 50 percent of the scheduled contests in the sport and have a minimum one year in residence at the institution. Each Pac-12 institution may nominate one individual per sport, and the winners are selected by a committee of Pac-12 staff members at the conclusion of each sport’s regular season. The athletics accomplishments of the nominees are a consideration in voting for the award.

A Scholar-Athlete of the Year is named in each of the Pac-12’s 24 sponsored sports: baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, beach volleyball, men’s cross country, women’s cross country, football, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s gymnastics, women’s lacrosse, men’s rowing, women’s rowing, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, softball, men’s swimming & diving, women’s swimming & diving, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, men’s track & field, women’s track & field, women’s volleyball, and wrestling. The award was first established during the 2007-08 academic year.

ALSO NOMINATED: Salma Ziouti, ARIZ; Ares Teixido Garcia, ORE; Sara Choy, STAN; Sasha Vagramov, UCLA; Anastasia Goncharov, UTAH; Hikaru Sato, WASH.

Pac-12 Women’s Tennis Scholar-Athletes of the Year
2023 – Haley Giavara, California
2022 – Michaela Bayerlova, Washington State
2021 – Emily Arbuthnott, Stanford
2020 – No award
2019 – Brianna Chisholm, Utah
2018 – Gabby Smith, USC
2017 – Caroline Doyle, Stanford
2016 – Krista Hardebeck, Stanford
2015 – Kaitlin Ray, UCLA
2014 – Lacey Smyth, Arizona
2013 – Jacqueline Cako, Arizona State
2012 – Jana Juricova, California
2011 – Venise Chan, Washington
2010 – Lindsay Burdette, Stanford
2009 – Danielle Steinberg, Arizona
2008 – Riza Zalameda, UCLA

*This article was previously published on PAC12.com

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About the Southern California Tennis Association Foundation:

We are a 501c3 nonprofit organization and is the charitable arm of USTA Southern California.  The Foundation’s mission is to “Change lives and build communities through tennis.” Since 2020, the SCTA Foundation has had a community impact of giving over $1million in tennis grants and tennis scholarships to deserving youth, adults, tennis organizations, tennis facilities and tennis programs to make tennis an equal opportunity sport, accessible to all, regardless of age, ability, ethnicity, or economic background. Visit us on Social Media on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. To learn more about the SCTA Foundation go to: www.sctafoundation.org.  To donate go to: sctafoundation.org/donate/ or https://secure.qgiv.com/for/sctfougivtue