Stavrakas, Bain Advance to Round of 16 at Pacific Coast Doubles Championship, Bison Combine for Six Wins on Day One

Photo by: Lianne Garrahan

Stavrakas, Bain Advance to Round of 16 at Pacific Coast Doubles Championship, Bison Combine for Six Wins on Day One

2/28/2025 10:49:00 PM | Men's Tennis

DRAWS

LA JOLLA, Calif. – The Bucknell men's tennis team entered three pairs in the Pacific Coast Doubles Championship, and the Bison had a strong opening day with a combined six victories, headlined by Adam Stavrakas and Oscar Bain Moreno de Vega winning three straight to advance to the Round of 16.

Stavrakas and Bain are Bucknell's regular No. 2 doubles pair, and the juniors are still alive in a competitive field with a heavy West Coast flavor. Their first two wins came in three sets against tandems from Pomona Pitzer and UCLA, and straight-set win over Ball State brings them back on Saturday.

The Bison duo started the tournament with a 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 10-8 win over Samuel English and Luke Feng of Pomona Pitzer. Stavrakas and Bain dropped their opening set 6-3 against the UCLA tandem of Leo Von Bismarck and Gianluca Ballotta, but they stormed back to win the second set in a tiebreaker (7-5) and then took the 10-point super tiebreaker in an extended 13-11 verdict to win the match.

Playing for the third time on Friday, Stavrakas and Bain downed Sajin Smith and Nathaniel Webster of Ball State 6-3, 6-4. Next up is the UC Davis duo of Luke Bollinger and Kaveh Taheri at 1:30 p.m. (ET) on Saturday.

Juniors Amar Tahirovic and Brendan McDonald won their first two matches before falling to another UCLA duo. Tahirovic and McDonald opened with a quick 6-2, 6-3 victory over Rice's Efe Ustundag and Emir Sendogan. They followed with another straight-set verdict over Nevada's Remy Tregours and Maxime Contet, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4).

Cassius Chinlund, who was formerly the No. 1 player in the ITA Junior rankings, teamed with William Martin for a 6-2, 6-3 win in the Round of 32.

Bucknell's youngest duo in the field – sophomore Liam Kilmer and freshman Nelson Alapi – went 1-1 on the day. They opened with a 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 win over Mitchel Heckmann and William Chiu. Kilmer and Alapi ran into a seeded duo from USC in the next round and fell 6-2, 6-2 to Peter Makk and Tristan Bradley.