Bison Doubles Tandem Falls in ITA Conference Masters Semis, Will Play for NCAA Bid Sunday

DRAWS

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Bucknell seniors Brendan McDonald and Amar Tahirovic were finally beaten in the semifinals of the ITA Conference Masters Championships on Sunday, but their NCAA hopes are still alive.

The Bison duo fell 6-1, 6-3 to second-seeded Karim Al-Amin and Ondrej Horak of Middle Tennessee State, and now they will come back on Sunday for the third-place match. The top three doubles finishers earn automatic bids to the NCAA Championships later this month in Lake Nona, Fla.

McDonald and Tahirovic will face fifth-seeded Petro Kuzmenok and Santiago Navarro of Rice in the third-place match on Sunday at 12 p.m. Eastern (9 a.m. local) at the Barnes Tennis Center. The Owls duo upset the No. 1 seed, Edward Winter and Hugh Winter of Pepperdine, in the quarterfinals, and then in Saturday's other semi, they fell 6-2, 7-5 to fourth-seeded Oscar Martinez and Marin Vergara Del Puerto of East Tennessee State.

Sunday's match will be live streamed, and live scoring will be available through the ITA.

Bucknell also continued play at the Navy Invitational on Saturday. Adam Stavrakas posted two more singles wins to make it a 3-0 weekend. After a win over Navy on Friday, he downed James Madison's Ryan Morgan 1-6, 6-0, 10-6, and Norfolk State's Szymon Janzen 6-1, 6-3 to win the "Navy Flight."

Liam Kilmer outlasted JMU's Esteve Agusti 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 11-9 for his second straight win, and then Kilmer injury defaulted in his third singles match. Freshman Tyler Bush bounced back from a three-set loss to Navy on Friday with his first two career wins. He downed JMU's Aurelian Schmitt 5-7, 7-6 (7-4), 10-7 and then had a much easier time with Binghamton's Ionnis Sakkas, 6-0, 6-2.

Will Robinson had a 1-1 day, with the win coming against Binghamton's Andre Ajed by a 6-4, 6-4 count. Nelson Alapi had a 6-2, 2-1 lead on JMU's Gur Libal when he had to retire due to injury.

Bison Doubles Tandem Falls in ITA Conference Masters Semis, Will Play for NCAA Bid Sunday

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Players Mentioned

Nelson Alapi

Tyler Bush

Liam Kilmer

Brendan McDonald

Will Robinson

Adam Stavrakas

Amar Tahirovic