Men’s Tennis Drops 4-3 Thriller to Navy in PL Semifinals

Saturday, April 22

Syracuse, N.Y. (Drumlins TC)

10 a.m.

Bucknell University

Navy (PL Semifinals)

Photo by: Olivia Hokanson

Men’s Tennis Drops 4-3 Thriller to Navy in PL Semifinals

4/22/2023 3:09:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Bucknell was a heartbeat away from pulling off the biggest upset in the history of the Patriot League Men's Tennis Tournament, but Navy's Gavin Seagraves outlasted Nick Mueller 8-6 in a third-set tiebreaker to send the top-seeded Midshipmen past the fifth-seeded Bison 4-3 in a semifinal nailbiter on Saturday at Drumlins Tennis Center.

The Bison were not only vying to become the first No. 5 seed ever to reach the Patriot League championship match, but they were also a few points away from defeating Navy for the first time in 49 all-time meetings in a series that dates back to 1950.

The Patriot League moved to a team-formatted postseason tournament in 1994, and only one other time in that span had the No. 1 seed failed to reach the final. That was in 2013, when top-seeded Army lost 4-3 to a Navy side that was seeded fourth despite a 17-2 overall record. On Saturday, the Bison had the Midshipmen on the ropes despite losing the doubles point and playing without veteran starter Tim Zelikovsky, who was out with an illness.

Bucknell went down 2-0 after dropping the No. 6 singles match but quickly evened things up thanks to straight-set wins from Oscar Bain Moreno de Vega at No. 5 and Michael Owen at No. 3.

On Court 1, Navy's Sasha Panyan won a second-set tiebreaker at 9-7 to defeat Amar Tahirovic to bring the match to 3-2, but the Bison still had plenty of life as Mueller and No. 4 man Brendan McDonald not only went to third and deciding sets, but went up a couple of breaks each.

The freshman McDonald, who won the clinching match in Friday's 4-2 quarterfinal win over Lehigh, jumped out to a 4-0 lead on Herrick Legaspi in the final set. Legaspi fought back to draw even at 5-5, but McDonald won the final two games to finish off a 6-7 (7-9), 6-1, 7-5 win and tie the team tally at 3-apiece.

All eyes turned to Court 2, where Mueller was on fire in building a 5-0 lead. But then Seagraves could not miss himself and won six straight games to find himself serving for the match at 6-5. The Navy senior fought off three break points before Mueller won the clutch deuce point to force a tiebreaker.

Mueller used a mini-break to go up 3-1 early in the tiebreaker, but Seagraves won the next two points before the two Virginia natives alternated points. Mueller thwarted a match point at 5-6, but at 6-7 his return of serve caught the net and Navy escaped.

Bucknell's season comes to an end at 15-8, its best record since the 2013 team finished with the same mark. Navy improved to 22-19 and will take on the winner of No. 2 Army and No. 3 Boston University in Sunday's championship match.