Men's Tennis Hosts Drexel, Travels to Duquesne this Weekend

Drexel (2-0) at Bucknell (5-1)
When: Friday, Feb. 14, 1 p.m.
Where: Central PA Tennis Center, South Williamsport, Pa.
LIVE RESULTS

Bucknell (5-1) at Duquesne (1-4)
When: Saturday, Feb. 15, 2 p.m.
Where: Oxford Athletic Club, Wexford, Pa.
LIVE RESULTS

** NOTE: The Bucknell-Binghamton match, originally scheduled for Sunday, has been postponed to March 21 at 4 p.m. at Bucknell's Varsity Tennis Courts. **

Bucknell at a Glance

The Bison men's tennis team continues a busy February stretch with two more matches this weekend. Bucknell hosts Drexel on Friday afternoon before heading to the Pittsburgh area to play Duquesne on Saturday.
Bucknell has won four straight matches to get to 5-1 on the season. The only loss was a 5-2 verdict at Penn State on Jan. 26, and since then the Bison have beaten Army, Fairfield, Johns Hopkins and Morgan State.
Most recently, the Bison blanked Morgan State 4-0 at home last Sunday.
Adam Stavrakas earned his second straight Patriot League Player of the Week citation on Tuesday. The junior went 4-0 last weekend, winning twice in both singles and doubles against Johns Hopkins and Morgan State.
Stavrakas is now 17-3 in singles this season, including a perfect 6-0 in dual matches. He has won twice in the No. 1 spot in the lineup and four times at No. 2. Stavrakas is also 11-3 in doubles.
As a team, Bucknell is a combined 96-28 (.774) in singles and 35-24 (.593) in doubles over the full season. The Bison are 22-8 in singles in dual matches, and they have yet to lose in the top two spots in the lineup.
Amar Tahirovic is 15-2 in all singles matches and 4-0 in duals, where he joins Stavrakas in those top two positions. Nelson Alapi (11-5) and Brendan McDonald (10-4) have also reached double figures in wins.
McDonald leads the team with 13 doubles wins against only five losses.
Bucknell's 4-1 win over Army on Feb. 1 snapped a 34-match losing streak to the Black Knights dating back to 1974.
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 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, only a junior, has already climbed to seventh place on Bucknell's career wins list with 65. His 113 combined singles and doubles victories rank 15th all-time.

Drexel at a Glance/Series History

The Dragons are 2-0 this spring with wins over Philadelphia rivals Villanova (7-0) and Saint Joseph's (4-3).
Drexel went 13-9 last season, ending with a 4-2 loss to Delaware in the CAA Tournament quarterfinals.
Alex De Sousa is 2-0 at No. 1 singles and a team-best 8-3 over the full season. Will Burridge (3) and Roman Lafond (6) are also 2-0 in dual matches.
Drexel has yet to drop a doubles match this spring. De Sousa/Lafond, Burridge/Hussein El Tawil, and Josue Guzman/Tiago Lima are all 2-0.
Bucknell is 5-3 all-time against Drexel with two straight head-to-head wins. The Bison won 4-3 last April in Philadelphia. Oscar Bain Moreno de Vega won a second-set tiebreaker against De Sousa at No. 3 singles to clinch the win. Bucknell trailed 3-1 before Tim Zelikovsky (5), Amar Tahirovic (1) and Bain came through.
At the ITA Northeast Regional in October, Adam Stavrakas won a three-setter against Lafond, while Tahirovic defeated De Sousa 6-1, 6-3.

Duquesne at a Glance/Series History

The Dukes are 1-4 to start the spring. Their win was a 7-0 verdict against Ashland, but all four losses were against quality opponents in Notre Dame, Western Michigan, Buffalo, and Dayton.
Keita Duclos is 1-3 in the No. 1 position this spring.
Bucknell and Duquesne both attended the Carnegie Mellon Invitational in September. In head-to-head results, Brendan McDonald was a 6-1, 6-1 winner over Uvan Patel in singles, and McDonald and Nelson Alapi defeated Aril Kayra Tuna and Duclos 6-3 in doubles.
In dual matches, Bucknell is 7-11-1 all-time against the Dukes, with the first meeting coming all the way back in 1929.
Bucknell won 7-0 last year at the Central PA Tennis Center. The Bison gave up no sets in singles play, and two of Bucknell's doubles teams gave up just one game in 6-1 victories.

Next Up

After this weekend's action, the Bison travel to Villanova on Saturday, Feb. 22 before hosting Saint Joseph's the following day.

Men's Tennis Hosts Drexel, Travels to Duquesne this Weekend

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Players Mentioned

Nelson Alapi

Oscar Bain Moreno de Vega

Brendan McDonald

Adam Stavrakas

Amar Tahirovic

Tim Zelikovsky

Men's Tennis Hosts Drexel, Travels to Duquesne this Weekend

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Next Event

Players Mentioned

Nelson Alapi

Oscar Bain Moreno de Vega

Brendan McDonald

Adam Stavrakas

Amar Tahirovic

Tim Zelikovsky

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