Men's Tennis Hosts Saint Francis, Visits Penn State to Kick off 2025 Spring Campaign

Saint Francis (0-1) at Bucknell (0-0)
When: Saturday, Jan. 25, 1 p.m.
Where: Central PA Tennis Center, South Williamsport, Pa.
LIVE RESULTS

Bucknell (0-0) at Penn State
When: Sunday, Jan. 26, 2:30 p.m.
Where: Indoor Tennis Center, University Park, Pa.
LIVE RESULTS | WATCH LIVE

Bucknell at a Glance

Bucknell makes its 2025 spring debut this weekend with a pair of dual matches. The Bison host Saint Francis on Saturday at 1 p.m., before making the short trip out to State College to face Penn State on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
These are the first of 25 dual matches, along with one tournament in California, on the regular-season schedule this spring. Bucknell will then host the 2025 Patriot League Tournament Apr. 17-20.
When we last saw the Bison in action, they were wrapping up a terrific fall season back in early November. Bucknell posted a combined team singles record of 74-20 (.787) in the fall, led by Nelson Alapi (11-1), Amar Tahirovic (11-2), and Adam Stavrakas (11-3) with 11 wins each. Nine of Bucknell's 10 players had winning singles records in the fall, and all 10 were at least .500.
The highlight of the fall was Bucknell's pair of wins at the Patriot League ITA Conference Masters qualifier at West Point. The tournament served as a mini Patriot League individual championship, with each team entering two singles players and one doubles unit. Tahirovic won a three-set match from teammate Stavrakas in the singles final, and Tahirovic and Brendan McDonald won the doubles title.
Those wins advanced them to the ITA Conference Masters event in Georgia, where top players from every Division I conference had a chance to automatically qualify for the NCAA Individual Championships. After two straight-set wins, Tahirovic lost to Notre Dame's Sebastian Dominko in the quarterfinals, leaving him just one win shy of the NCAA bid. Tahirovic and McDonald won their opening-round doubles match before getting eliminated by the top seed from Mississippi State.
Tahirovic's only two losses of the fall came to the No. players from Notre Dame and Penn State, and the loss to PSU's Loren Byers was a three-setter in the Round of 16 at the ITA Northeast Regionals at Penn.
Tahirovic, only a junior, has already climbed to 10th place on Bucknell's career wins list with 61. His 105 combined singles and doubles victories rank T-16th all-time.
Alapi and fellow freshman Shiv Singh were ranked 118th and 119th, respectively in the ITA singles rankings in early December.
Singh and Liam Kilmer both went 3-0 in singles at the Navy Invitational to conclude the fall season.

Saint Francis at a Glance/Series History

The Red Flash made their spring debut in Annapolis last Saturday and came away with a 7-0 loss to Navy. No. 1 singles player Alan Gonzalez took the first set from Jake Young before falling 10-7 in the third-set super tiebreaker.
Saint Francis will host Siena on Friday Morning before heading to South Williamsport.
Bucknell went 8-0 in head-to-head singles matches with Saint Francis at the Bucknell Invitational to start the season.
None of those wins came against Gonzalez, however. The sophomore went 20-9 last season and was named to the NEC All-Rookie Team and All-Tournament Team.
Saint Francis went 12-8 overall and 5-1 in the NEC a year ago. The Red Flash made it to the NEC Tournament final before falling 4-1 to top-seeded Binghamton.
Bucknell won last year's dual 7-0 at the Central PA Tennis Center. Saint Francis did get a win at No. 2 doubles, but the Bison won all but one set in singles.
Bucknell is 17-4 all-time in a series that dates back to 1995. The Bison have won the last five dual matches.

Penn State at a Glance/Series History

The Nittany Lions have four home matches this weekend to start off their spring season. Penn State hosts Temple and Fordham on Saturday, and then Quinnipiac and Bucknell come in on Sunday.
Penn State competed in four fall tournaments, the Yale Invitational, the Navy Blue Invitational, the ITA Regionals, and the Cornell Invitational. The Nittany Lions combined to go 25-40 in singles and 14-21 in doubles against good competition.
David Lindsay (5-3) and Shrikeshav Murugesan (5-4) led the team with five singles wins, and Loren Byers also had a winning record at 4-3.
At the ITA Regionals in Philadelphia in October, Oscar Bain and Adam Stavrakas defeated Byars and Lindsay 8-6 in doubles, while Byars pulled out a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 singles win over Tahirovic in the Round of 16 of the main draw.
These two teams first met in 1921, and Penn State leads the all-time series 67-16-2. The Nittany Lions have won the last 27 duals, with Bucknell's last win a 6-3 verdict during the 14-0 season in 1970. The following season the Bison went 13-1, with the only loss a 5-4 decision to PSU.

Next Up

After this weekend's fixtures, Bucknell heads to West Point for its first Patriot League match of the season on Saturday, Feb. 1. The Bison and Black Knights will play at 11 a.m., and then Bucknell will stick around and face Fairfield later in the day at 5 p.m.

Men's Tennis Hosts Saint Francis, Visits Penn State to Kick off 2025 Spring Campaign

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Nelson Alapi

Liam Kilmer

Brendan McDonald

Shiv Singh

Adam Stavrakas

Amar Tahirovic

Men's Tennis Hosts Saint Francis, Visits Penn State to Kick off 2025 Spring Campaign

Related News

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Nelson Alapi

Liam Kilmer

Brendan McDonald

Shiv Singh

Adam Stavrakas

Amar Tahirovic

Related Videos