Men's Tennis Debuts at Home Tournament this Weekend

Friday, September 1

Lewisburg, Pa.

All Day

Bucknell University

Bucknell Invitational

Photo by: Ben Popko

Men's Tennis Debuts at Home Tournament this Weekend

8/31/2023 3:16:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Setting the Scene
What: Bucknell Invitational
Teams: Bucknell, Lafayette, Mount St. Mary's, Saint Francis (Pa.)
Dates: Friday, September 1 to Sunday, September 3
Where: Varsity Tennis Courts – Lewisburg, Pa.
Results: ITA

Tournament Details
Format: Round-robin style play in eight four-player singles groups and four four-team doubles groups; flight champions based on overall record, with sets W/L and games W/L used as tiebreakers

Schedule:
Friday (1 p.m. start): 1 round of singles
Saturday (9 a.m. start): 2 rounds of doubles, 1 round of singles
Sunday (9 a.m. start): 1 round of doubles, 1 round of singles

Bucknell at a Glance
• Second-year head coach Jason Cohen welcomes back a young but talented squad in 2023, and his team will be busy this fall with four tournaments on the schedule.
• Play starts this weekend with the team's annual three-day Bucknell Invitational. The format will be a bit different this year, with World Cup-style four-player group play in both singles and doubles. Competitors will play each of the other three in his group, and the player with the best record will be the group champion. Under this format, each individual has an opportunity to play three singles and three doubles matches, and teammates will never have to play each other.
• The Bison are coming off an outstanding spring, when they finished 15-8 overall and 4-3 in the Patriot League. Bucknell was just a few points away from advancing to the Patriot League Tournament final. After knocking off Lehigh in the quarterfinals, the Bison had top-seeded Navy on the brink in the semis, but the Midshipmen rallied to pull out a 4-3 verdict.
• Bucknell's 2023-24 roster features just one senior in Tim Zelikovsky, and the other seven players are all sophomores and freshmen.
• Three of the four sophomores were regulars in the Bucknell lineup last season, including Amar Tahirovic, who earned First Team All-Patriot League honors. Tahirovic led the team with a 23-9 singles record while playing from the top two spots in the lineup. He went 14-6 in dual matches and 8-2 at No. 1 singles. He became Bucknell's first freshman all-leaguer since Nick Bybel in 2013.
• Brendan McDonald and Oscar Bain Morena de Vega were also fixtures for the Bison as rookies a year ago. McDonald was the team's top doubles player with a stellar 25-5 record, and he also went 20-10 in singles, including the match-clincher against Lehigh in the Patriot League Tournament. Bain went 11-7 in singles and 14-10 in doubles as a freshman.
• Sophomore Adam Stavrakas was not with the team in the spring, but he flashed his talent at the ITA Regional in Charlottesville, Va., last October. He won his first five singles matches before falling in the second stage to Alvaro Ariza of Virginia Tech.
• Three newcomers will make their Bison debuts this weekend: Ethan Esclamado, Liam Kilmer, and Will Robinson. In addition to singles play, Robinson and Esclamado will pair up in doubles, while Kilmer will team with Zelikovsky.

A Look Ahead
• Bucknell will also play in tournaments hosted by Villanova and Binghamton later this month, and the Bison will also look to quality players for the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla., and the ITA Regionals in Lynchburg, Va.