Vusa Hove Attains National and Regional Tennis Rankings

BUFFALO, NY – University at Buffalo men's tennis player Vusa Hove has earned national and regional rankings as the Intercollegiate Tennis Association unveiled its first poll heading into the dual meet season.

Hove, a senior from Harare, Zimbabwe, ranks 123rd in the national rankings and 14th among players in the Northeast Region. The Northeast Region includes all Division I programs from New England, New York and New Jersey as well as many Pennsylavania schools and encompasses one of the toughest men's tennis leagues in the country, the Ivy League. Sixteeen of the top 20 singles players in the Northeast Region play for Ivy League schools.

During the fall tournament season, Hove led the Bulls with an 8-3 singles record and was 4-3 in doubles play. He reached the semifinal round of Princeton Invitational, including a victory over Wake Forest's Danny Kreyman, now ranked 90th in the nation, before falling to Matija Pecotic of Princeton, the nation's number two player, in the semifinal. Hove also won the Red Flight championship at Cornell Fall Invite as three of his four wins came in straight sets. Additionally, he earned a seeding and first-round bye at the ITA Regionals before being eliminated in the third round.

"Achieving a national ranking in singles is not an easy thing to do in our region. Vusa had a very good fall and being ranked is a great reward for his hard work," said head coach Lee Nickell. "Our goal is to keep Vusa's work ethic at a high level so he can maintain a ranking throughout the year and hopefully qualify for the NCAA tournament in May."

In his career with the Bulls, Hove has a 63-23 singles record. The 63 wins rank fourth on UB's all-time singles victory list while his .733 singles winning percentage tops that list.

The Bulls open dual meet play the weekend of January 25-26 with matches against Colgate and Bryant at Turning Stone Casino in Verona, NY.