Men's Tennis in Action in San Diego, Annapolis this Week

Setting the Scene, Part I
What: ITA Conference Masters Championships
Dates: Thursday-Sunday, Nov. 6-9
Where: San Diego, Calif. (Barnes Tennis Center)
DRAWS/RESULTS
LIVE STREAM (Featured Courts)
LIVE SCORING

Setting the Scene, Part II
What: Navy Invitational
Dates: Friday-Sunday, Nov. 7-9
Where: Annapolis, Md. (Tose Family Tennis Center and Fluegel-Moore Tennis Stadium)
Field: Navy, Binghamton, Bucknell, Hampton, James Madison, Norfolk State, Richmond, St Joseph's
DRAWS/RESULTS

About the Weekend
• It's a busy November weekend for the Bucknell men's tennis team, as two players will represent the Bison and the Patriot League at the ITA Conference Masters Championships in San Diego, while the rest of the squad will be in action at the Navy Invitational.
• Amar Tahirovic and Brendan McDonald will be in San Diego for the Conference Masters. The duo will play doubles, and Tahirovic is also in the singles draw after claiming the titles at the Patriot League qualifier at Lehigh two weeks ago. Just like last year, Tahirovic beat teammate Adam Stavrakas in three sets in the PL singles final, and Tahirovic and McDonald rolled through the doubles bracket.
• Tahirovic, ranked No. 43 in the ITA fall singles rankings, gets going first in singles on Thursday morning with a round-of-32 match against DePaul graduate student Alejandro Gandini, who was named the 2025 Big East Player of the Year while attending Creighton. The winner of that match will play fourth-seeded and 15th-ranked Martin Borisiouk of North Carolina State. Borisious was an NCAA singles qualifier last year after winning the ITA Carolina Regional.
• In doubles, Tahirovic and McDonald will play Boise State's Carson Baker and Avery Tallakson on Thursday evening. The winner will move on to play sixth-seeded Conrad Brown and Miguel Avendano Cadena of UC Santa Barbara.
• The ITA Conference Masters features singles and doubles representatives from all 32 Division I conferences and provides a pathway to the NCAA Championships at Lake Nona, Fla., later this month. The four singles semifinalists and the top three doubles teams will earn NCAA bids.
• This is the third high-level ITA event of the fall for Tahirovic, who previously competed at the ITA All-American Championships at Tulsa and the ITA Northeast Regional at Princeton. He enters the weekend with a 10-3 singles record this fall. A year ago at the ITA Conference Masters, he advanced to the quarterfinals before falling to top-seeded Sebastian Dominko of Notre Dame one win shy of an NCAA berth.
• Meanwhile, Nelson Alapi, Tyler Bush, Liam Kilmer, Will Robinson, Shiv Singh, and Adam Stavrakas are scheduled to play at the Navy Invitational. The event features two rounds of doubles and one round of singles on Friday; one round of singles and doubles on Saturday; and one round of singles on Sunday. Play gets going at 10 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, and at 9 a.m. on Sunday.

About the Bison | TEAM STATISTICS
• Bucknell returns virtually its entire roster from last year's Patriot League championship team. The list of returnees is headlined by Tahirovic, the 2025 Patriot League Player of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and Stavrakas, the Patriot League Tournament MVP and First Team All-PL honoree. Those two, along with Oscar Bain Moreno de Vega and McDonald, comprise one of the most accomplished senior classes in program history.
• Tahirovic is No. 43 in the ITA men's singles rankings. He now has 93 career singles wins, second-most in team history behind Nick Bybel's 112. Stavrakas ranks eighth with 68 wins, and Bain is 16th with 54.
• Last year's championship was Bucknell's first since claiming the 1991 Patriot League title. That was the league's inaugural season, and the men's tennis championship was decided by an individually flighted tournament. The 2025 crown was the team's first in the Patriot League's team-format era, and the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament was the first in team history.

A Look Ahead
• If Tahirovic and/or McDonald are able to advance to the NCAA Championships, they would be held at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Fla., Nov. 18-23.

Men's Tennis in Action in San Diego, Annapolis this Week

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Nelson Alapi

Oscar Bain Moreno de Vega

Tyler Bush

Liam Kilmer

Brendan McDonald

Will Robinson

Shiv Singh

Adam Stavrakas

Amar Tahirovic