New York, NY - Vassar College Women's Basketball senior Tova Gelb earned the prestigious honor of being named the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum College Athlete of the Year at a ceremony at Suffolk Jewish Community Center in Commack, New York on Thursday, May 29th. The prestigious honor recognizes one male and one female Jewish athlete who have delivered an exceptional year as a college athlete, both on and off the court, field, rink, track and more. This award was bestowed by Jason Bartow, Vassar College Class of 1998, who serves as the chairperson of the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

The museum prides itself on commemorating and honoring great athletes, coaches, commentators and more in their annual ceremonies, as well as showing young Jewish athletes that there is no limit to what they can accomplish. This year's Hall of Fame inductee class includes basketball player Al Sloman, tennis great Aaron Krickstein and broadcasting legend Kenny Albert

Gelb has helped lead the Brewers to back-to-back Liberty League Championships and along the way has been named First Team All-Liberty League twice, the 2025 Liberty League Player and Defensive Player of the Year, First Team All-Region III twice, the D3hoops.com Region III Player of the Year, a Women's Basketball Coaches Association All-American and a D3hoops.com All-American. 

Gelb closed the season leading the team and the Liberty League in scoring (18.3), rebounding (10.4) and steals (2.7). Gelb converted at 47.8-percent from the field overall and was good for 2.9 assists and just over one block per game.

Gelb led the team with 18 double-doubles on the season and scored in double-figures in 25 of the team's 28 games on the season. Gelb poured in a single-game program record 36 points on January 18 in an overtime win against RIT, a game in which she became the 15^th player in program history to score 1,000 career points. The senior closes her career with 1,278 points and 7.3 rebounds per game over 106 contests.

Gelb has also excelled off the court and has been named an Academic All-District–Liberty League Honoree twice as well as a Third Team Academic All-American by College Sports Communicators, just the second such honor for a women's basketball player in program history.