Men's Tennis Closes Out Rgular Season in Bethlehem against Lehigh, Holy Cross

Bucknell (14-6, 4-1 PL) at Lehigh (11-8, 5-1 PL)
When: Saturday, Apr. 12, 9 a.m.
Where: Lewis Indoor Tennis Center, Bethlehem, Pa.
LIVE RESULTS

Bucknell (14-6, 4-1 PL) vs. Holy Cross (7-8, 3-3 PL)
When: Saturday, Apr. 12, approx. 12:30 p.m.
Where: Lewis Indoor Tennis Center, Bethlehem, Pa.
LIVE RESULTS

Bucknell at a Glance

The Bison finish up the regular season with a pair of Patriot League matches against Lehigh and Holy Cross in Bethlehem. Bucknell and Lehigh are battling for the No. 2 seed in next week's Patriot League Tournament. Both have one loss in league play, and that was to Navy. The Midshipmen are 7-0 heading into Sunday's match with 4-2 Army.
Bucknell dropped a 4-2 decision at home to the Mids last Friday, then rebounded with a 4-0 sweep of Lafayette on Sunday evening at Lehigh's indoor facility.
Bucknell has reached double-digit wins for the fourth straight year and now has 14 or more for the 11th time in team history.
Juniors Amar Tahirovic and Adam Stavrakas have been nearly unbeatable at the top of the singles lineup. They have interchanged between the 1 and 2 spots and are a combined 37-1 in dual matches this spring. Stavrakas is 31-3 over the full season and 20-0 in duals. He brings a 20-match winning streak into the weekend, with his last loss coming to Richmond's Dylan Atkinson at the Navy Invitational on Nov. 10. Of Stavrakas' three losses this season, one of them was to his own teammate Tahirovic in the championship match of the Patriot League qualifying tournament for the ITA Conference Masters.
Stavrakas' 31 singles wins are second-most Bucknell history. Nick Bybel won a record 38 matches in 2014-15.
Meanwhile, Tahirovic is now 28-3 with 10 straight wins. His only losses this season are to Penn State's No. 1 player Loren Byers at the ITA Regionals in the fall; to Notre Dame's Sebastian Dominko in the quarterfinals of the ITA Conference Masters; and to the No. 1 ranked player in Division III, Advik Mareedu of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. He avenged that loss to Byers with a three-set win in the Bucknell-Penn State dual match on Jan. 26.
Tahirovic entered the ITA Men's Singles Rankings for the first time last week at No. 124, and this week he moved up 34 spots to No. 90. Bybel was the last Bison to be ranked during the spring season. He rose as high as No. 95 as a senior in 2016.
Oscar Bain Moreno de Vega is also playing good tennis. Bucknell's usual No. 3 player has won eight straight matches and is 12-4 in duals, 17-7 overall. Bain and Stavrakas have been strong in doubles as well, and that duo advanced to the quarterfinals of the West Coast Doubles Championship in La Jolla, Calif., earlier this month.
Bucknell is now 149-54 (.734) in singles and 66-40 (.623) in doubles in 2024-25.
Tahirovic is now 78-17 in singles in his career, and he has moved into second place on Bucknell's all-time singles wins list. Bybel holds the record with 112.
Only six players in team history have finished their careers with a singles winning percentage of .800 or better, and all of them graduated by 1990. Tahirovic currently has an .821 winning percentage.
Tahirovic is also 64-33 in career doubles matches, and his 141 combined wins rank No. 7 in team history.
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 Brendan 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.

Lehigh at a Glance/Series History

The Mountain Hawks have won three straight matches, all in league play against Army, Boston University, and Lafayette. Their only league loss was a 5-2 decision to Navy on March 29.
Talented freshman Jose Murariu plays in the No. 1 spot in the lineup, with senior Marc Blekhman in the two spot. Blekhman is a three-time Second Team All-Patriot League selection.
Bucknell is 43-46 all-time against Lehigh in a series that dates back to 1921. The Bison have won the last two meetings, including a 5-2 verdict last year in Lewisburg.
In 2023, Lehigh won 4-3 in the regular season, but a week later the Bison won 4-2 in the Patriot League Tournament quarterfinals.

Holy Cross at a Glance/Series History

The Crusaders are 7-8 overall and 3-3 in the Patriot League, with wins over Loyola, Lafayette, and Boston University.
Most recently, Holy Cross fell 4-0 to Navy last Sunday.
Ezequiel De La Plaza has a 6-5 record in the No. 1 spot in the lineup and 9-10 overall.
Bucknell is 14-0 all-time against the Crusaders. The teams last met in 2023, when the Bison won 4-1.

Next Up

Bucknell hosts the Patriot League Tournament next week. The action begins on Thursday with a first-round matchup between the 8 and 9 seeds. Bucknell will be in action for the first time on Friday in one of the four quarterfinal matches.