Men's Tennis Opens Patriot League Tournament Play Friday Morning vs. Lehigh

#5 Bucknell (14-7, 4-3 PL) vs. #4 Lehigh (11-9, 4-3 PL)
Patriot League Tournament Quarterfinals
When: Friday, Apr. 21, 10:45 a.m.
Where: J.W. Abrahamson Tennis Courts, Hamilton, N.Y.
Live Scoring: ColgateAthletics.com

Bucknell at a Glance

Bucknell is the No. 5 seed at the 2023 Patriot League Men's Tennis Tournament, a team-flighted event that will result in an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament for the champion.
The Bison will take on No. 4 Lehigh in the quarterfinal round on Friday morning. It will be the second meeting between the two teams in six days. The Mountain Hawks edged the Bison 4-3 in Bethlehem on Saturday.
No. 8 Loyola and No. 9 Holy Cross meet in a first-round matchup on Thursday, with the winner drawing No. 1 seed Navy in the Friday's first quarterfinal match. Other quarterfinal clashes include No. 2 Army and No. 7 Lafayette, and No. 3 Boston University taking on No. 6 Colgate.
Semifinal matches are set for 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday, followed by the championship match at noon on Sunday.
Fourth-seeded Bucknell won its quarterfinal match for the first time since 2017 last season, coming from behind for a 4-3 win over Boston University in Annapolis. The Bison then fell to the top-seeded Midshipmen 4-0 in the semis.
Most recently, Bucknell defeated Holy Cross 4-1 on the road on Sunday. The Bison also have league wins against Colgate, Loyola, and Lafayette, with the losses coming to Navy, Boston University, and Lehigh.
Bucknell has claimed the doubles point in 16 of its last 18 dual matches, and the Bison have a collective 60-31 overall record in doubles and a 39-16 mark in duals this season.
Freshman Brendan McDonald is 25-5 in doubles this season, including 16-3 in duals, while Nick Mueller is 18-5 overall and 12-5 in duals.
McDonald's 25 doubles wins are tied for the sixth-most in a season in Bucknell history and the most since Nick Bybel went 28-5 in 2014-15.
Leading the way in singles is freshman Amar Tahirovic, this week's Patriot League Player of the Week who is now 23-8 over the full season, 14-5 in the spring, and 8-1 in the No. 1 spot in the lineup. McDonald is next with 18 wins, followed by Tim Zelikovsky with 16 and Michael Owen with 15.
Tahirovic's 23 singles wins are tied for seventh-most in a season in team history.

Lehigh at a Glance/Series History

The Mountain Hawks concluded their regular season with the narrow 4-3 win over Bucknell last Saturday.
Matt Kleiman has been playing in the No. 1 spot in the lineup this spring. He is 8-11 in dual matches and 4-2 in Patriot League play, with one of those losses coming to Tahirovic in three sets last week.
Marc Blekhman has a team-best 14-5 record, including an 8-1 mark at No. 3 singles and a 5-2 record at No. 4.
Lehigh has a narrow 46-41 lead in an all-time series that dates back to 1921. The series was tied at 41 until the Mountain Hawks claimed the last five in a row.