Senior Vusa Hove is known for being an aggressive, passionate player. He exerts all of his energy into every swing of the racket.
Throughout his singles match Friday morning, Hove continuously motioned his arms back and forth - reminding himself to lean forward to attain the most from his powerful form.
After every missed point, Hove would pause for a second, illustrate the motion and get right back to work. As the match proceeded, he found himself naturally leaning forward, putting more velocity on his shot, keeping opponents off balance.
"That is how you get good acceleration on the ball," Hove said. "So I always try to tell myself to do that."
His habit helped clinch the essential fourth point in singles play as the Bulls (9-6, 3-0 Mid-American Conference) swept Chicago State (1-20, 0-3 MAC), 7-0.
After Buffalo earned consecutive wins at No. 2 and 3 singles, Hove aggressively attacked the net to earn the top-slotted win. He outlasted Sergiu Muresan, 6-2, 6-1, to mark Hove's 70th career win at UB.
"I feel it has been a career of hard work," he said. "I've been working toward winning a lot of matches. I feel like it has taken a lot of focus to get to that point."
Hove's win on Friday took him beyond Nick Zieziula for second in all-time wins at UB.
"Vusa has been as consistent of a performer as we've ever had," said head coach Lee Nickell. "For him to get to 70 wins is a major accomplishment, especially considering he missed a semester, coming in late in the spring. This year has been different for him attitude-wise. He's a better teammate. The major difference was the summer and the fall with his work ethic in the weight room. His off-court intensity has matched his on-court intensity."
In doubles play, sophomore Damien David and freshman Ashwin Sharma quickly picked up an 8-3 win at No. 1, followed by an 8-5 victory by freshmen Akhil Mehta and Nick Sarles at No. 3, which proved to be the clinching point.
"We've got the right guys that fit with each other," Nickell said. "Every one of our doubles [teams] is still a bit of a question mark. We're still not where we need to be in [doubles]. For us to take down the title, for us to win this year, we've got to continue to win doubles points."
Hove and his counterpart, junior Yevgeniy Jason Shkodnik, also posted a doubles win.
The Bulls will hope to continue their streak of consistent play as they travel to Big 4 rival Binghamton (11-9) this Sunday.
"We've never beaten Binghamton since I've been here," Nickell said. "We've had 4-3 matches every time. Last year, we had a bad default in the middle of the match that kind of killed us. This year, they are a very similar [to us] because they have a bunch of freshmen and young guys. But it will be a tough test for us."
The match is set for 2 p.m.
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Photo: Courtesy of UB Athletics
