University of Georgia women’s tennis sophomore Lea Ma has been named to the Southeastern Conference All-Newcomer Team, the league office announced this week.

Ma is one of seven players to earn the honor created by the SEC Awards Committee this year for players who were freshman in 2020. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the league did not have any postseason tennis honors last year, and this was a way to recognize sophomores who excelled on the court after missing an opportunity to be named Freshman All-SEC. Ma joins Selin Ovunc (Auburn), Carolyn Ansari (Auburn), Safiya Carrington (LSU), Bronte Murgett (Missouri), Carly Briggs (Tennessee), and Marcella Cruz (Vanderbilt).

Recently, Ma was named the 2021 SEC Newcomer of the year as well. She garnered an at-large bid to the NCAA Singles Championship and reached the round of 32. Ma was selected to the SEC All-Tournament team after helping the Bulldogs win SEC regular season and tournament titles. Last week, Ma was one of four Bulldogs on the First Team All-SEC squad along with Katarina Jokic, Meg Kowalski and Morgan Coppoc. Jokic was named the SEC Player of the Year and Jeff Wallace was tabbed the SEC Coach of the Year.

In only her second season playing for Georgia, Ma’s career honors include ITA Southeast Region Rookie of the Year and SEC First Year Spring Academic Honor Roll. She was ranked No. 18 nationally in singles heading into the NCAA Championships. Final ITA rankings will be released this week.