UB Men's Tennis Announces Awards

BUFFALO, NY – The University at Buffalo men's tennis squad announced its team awards for the 2009-10 season. Head coach Lee Nickell and his staff made the following presentations: Vusa Hove was named Most Improved Player; Mitch Zenaty earned the Bulls Spirit Award and George Tibil was selected as the team's Most Valuable Player.

Hove joined the Bulls for the spring semester and finished with a 13-3 singles record and 6-7 doubles mark. Hove spent the bulk of the season playing fifth singles posting a 7-1 mark (3-1 in Mid-American Conference matches), but also saw action at fourth and sixth singles. Hove scored the clinching point to put the Bulls into the MAC Tournament championship match as he defeated Toledo's Gursher Harika, 7-5, 7-5 in UB's 4-1 semifinal win over the Rockets. Hove also won the deciding point in UB's 4-3 regular season win over Western Michigan, the first time the Bulls had defeated the Broncos, as he rallied from a set down to defeat Casey Cullen, 5-7, 6-3, 7-5.

Zenaty, the junior team captain, finished second on the team with a 17-13 doubles record while also posting a 6-4 singles record. He paired with three different partners during the spring dual match season, playing third doubles. Zenaty and Hove made up UB's third doubles combination toward the end of the season as the duo went 5-4 in their matches.

Tibil earned the team MVP honors after a spectacular freshman season finishing with a 17-9 singles record and 16-13 doubles mark. Tibil's 17 singles wins tied for second during the season. In the dual season, he went 9-3 at fourth singles and was 3-1 in MAC matches. Tibil scored the deciding point in UB's 4-3 regular season win over Toledo as he downed Leo Sarria in a tiebreaker to claim a 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (4) win.

The Bulls finished the season with a 13-7 overall record and won the MAC's regular season title with a 5-0 mark. UB reached the championship match of the MAC Tournament for the first time in school history, falling to five-time champion Western Michigan in the title match.