Kiira Riihijarvi Named Female Athlete of the Year

TAMPA, Fla. - Kiira Riihijarvi, a member of the University of Tampa women's golf team and graduate student, has been named the 2020-21 recipient of the female Athlete of the Year award, presented annually to the top male and female athlete.

Riihijarvi's success as a student-athlete has earned her four All-American selections. She is also a four-time All-Region selection and four-time All-Conference selection.

Her stellar play at UT gave her an opportunity to play at Augusta National Golf Club at the 2021 Augusta National Women's Amateur, an international tournament field of the best 82 women's amateur golfers in the world.

Riihijarvi finished first overall in three tournaments in 2021, winning two medals. She won consecutive collegiate events in the fall of 2019 – the Lady Falcon Invitational and the NSU Shark Invitational – and followed those victories with a runner-up finish at the Lady Moc Classic. She won four times in all in 2019, including the Sunshine State Conference championship, and earned SSC Player of the Year honors. Overall, Riihijarvi has captured medalist honors a total of 12 times as a Spartan.

She was named the 2021 SSC Women's Golfer of the Year and she was named SSC Golfer of the Week three times in 2021.

"With the extra year granted she could have gone on to play professional golf," says head coach Missey Jones. "She chose to come back because she believes we have the team to win nationals. She is unreal leader, has a superb work ethic, and is by far the most amazing leader and athlete I have ever coached.

Male Scholar-Athlete Award:Nico Gamio, Men's Soccer
Female Scholar-Athlete Award: Hana van Loock, Women's Swimming
Male Iron Spartan Award: Jordan Leasure, Baseball
Female Iron Spartan Award: Megan Bromwell, Women's Soccer
Melissa Vanderhall Spartan Cape Award: Julia Ingram, Women's Basketball
Freddie Solomon Community Service Award: Julia Ingram, Women's Basketball
Male Athlete of the Year: Ross Dickerson, Men's Lacrosse
Female Athlete of the Year: Kiira Riihijarvi, Women's Golf