Men's Tennis Hosts Three Matches this Weekend in South Williamsport **UPDATE**

**UPDATE** -- The Bucknell-Rider match, originally scheduled for Saturday night, has been postponed due to the forecast of inclement weather and difficult travel conditions.

Johns Hopkins (0-0) at Bucknell (3-1)
When: Saturday, Feb. 8, 1 p.m.
Where: Central PA Tennis Center, South Williamsport, Pa.
LIVE RESULTS

Morgan State (0-3) at Bucknell (3-1)
When: Sunday, Feb. 9, 1 p.m.
Where: Central PA Tennis Center, South Williamsport, Pa.
LIVE RESULTS

Bucknell at a Glance

After a banner day at West Point last Saturday, the Bucknell men's tennis team hosts two dual matches at the Central PA Tennis Center this weekend. The Bison host a very strong Division III team in Johns Hopkins, and then Morgan State visits on Sunday.
Last week, Bucknell ended a 34-match series losing streak to Army with a 4-1 win at the Lichtenberg Tennis Center. It was Bucknell's first win over the Black Knights since 1974. The Bison came back later in the day to beat Fairfield, the reigning MAAC regular-season champion, by a 4-2 count.
Adam Stavrakas was named Patriot League Player of the Week and Bison of the Week after going 4-0 on the day. Playing in the No. 2 position, he rolled to straight-set singles wins over Army's Alan Ton (6-1, 6-4) and Fairfield's Kostas Kollias (6-1, 6-2). Stavrakas also teamed with Oscar Bain Moreno de Vega for two wins at No. 2 doubles, helping the Bison nab the doubles point in both matches.
Bain and Brendan McDonald also won handily in straight sets against Army, and McDonald and Amar Tahirovic teamed up for a 6-1 win at No. 1 doubles.
Bucknell was victorious at 1 and 2 doubles again in the Fairfield tilt, and then Tahirovic, Savrakas, and freshman Shiv Singh won in singles. Singh's 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Zach Whittington clinched it.
Bucknell also has a 7-0 win over Saint Francis and a 5-2 loss to Penn State on its spring ledger.
Including the fall tournament season, the squad has a combined record of 88-27 (.765) in singles and 31-22 (.585) in doubles.
Bucknell has now had the Patriot League Player of the Week in consecutive weeks, as Tahirovic claimed the honor after winning a three-set battle against Penn State's No. 1 man, Loren Byers. Tahirovic is 14-2 in singles on the season, and one of the losses was a tough three-setter to Byers in the ITA Northeast Regional Round of 16 in October. Tahirovic returned the favor in State College, defeating Byers 6-1, 6-7, 6-4 at No. 1 singles.
Stavrakas, who also won at No. 2 singles at Penn State, is 15-3 on the season and 4-0 in the four duals.
The longest winning streak on the team belongs to Singh, who has won six straight dating back to the fall. Singh is 9-1 on the season, with last week's win over Fairfield coming in his first career dual match.
McDonald has a team-high 12 doubles wins, eight of them coming alongside Tahirovic. The duo is 3-1 at No. 1 this spring.
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 T-7th place on Bucknell's career wins list with 64. His 111 combined singles and doubles victories rank 15th all-time.

Johns Hopkins at a Glance/Series History

The Blue Jays went 15-7 overall and 7-1 in the Centennial Conference last season. They fell to 11th-ranked Swarthmore 5-3 in the conference tournament final, and then went on to beat Mary Washington in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament.
This will be Johns Hopkins' first match of the spring season. In the fall, Chakor Rajendra was the singles runner-up at the ITA Southeast Regional in Fredericksburg, Va., and the doubles team of Allen Gong and Dylan Blenkiron also reached the final. Gong and Blenkiron went on to earn All-America Honors at the ITA Cup in Georgia after winning a pair of matches.
Johns Hopkins produced a combined 63-30 singles record in the fall, including a perfect 9-0 mark from Brian Yi. Rajendra went 9-4, and Mukunudh Boopathi finished 8-1.
This will be the first-ever meeting between the Bison and Blue Jays.

Morgan State at a Glance/Series History

The Bears are 0-3 to start the spring season and will play FDU in Annapolis on Friday before taking on Bucknell on Sunday.
Morgan State has suffered defeats to Delaware (6-1), St. John's (5-0), and LIU (4-2).
No. 1 singles player Mikeal Carpenter is 1-0 in his lone completed match so far, a 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 win over Delaware's Karol Malirz. Carpenter was the 2023 MEAC Player of the Year, and last year he earned First Team All-MEAC honors for the second year in a row.
The Bison and Bears have met twice previously, with Bucknell winning 7-0 in Hilton Head Island, S.C., in 1996 and 5-2 at home in 2019.

Next Up

Bucknell has three more matches on tap next weekend. They will host Drexel on Friday and Binghamton on Sunday, with a trip to Duquesne in between on Saturday.

Men's Tennis Hosts Three Matches this Weekend in South Williamsport UPDATE

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Players Mentioned

Oscar Bain Moreno de Vega

Brendan McDonald

Shiv Singh

Adam Stavrakas

Amar Tahirovic