Men’s Tennis Draws Virginia in NCAA Championship First Round
4/28/2025 6:59:00 PM | Men's Tennis
NCAA TOURNAMENT BRACKET
LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Patriot League champion Bucknell men's tennis team will be headed south for its first-ever NCAA Championship match. The Bison will face seventh-seeded Virginia in the first round at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the Virginia Tennis Facility at the Boar's Head Resort in Charlottesville.
Bucknell brings a 19-6 record into the NCAA tourney, tying the school record for dual-match wins in a season. The most recent of those was a 4-1 win over Navy in the Patriot League Tournament final on Apr. 20, which secured the program's first-ever team bid to NCAAs. Bucknell's only other NCAA participants were the doubles team of Gregg Cohenca and Evan Zimmer, who qualified for the individual flighted championship in 2012.
The Bison are led by the 1-2 punch of Amar Tahirovic (33-3) and Adam Stavrakas (35-3) at the top of the lineup. That duo is a combined 68-6 in singles over the full season, and both went unbeaten in Patriot League play. Tahirovic was recently named Patriot League Player of the Year, and he is currently No. 85 in the ITA singles rankings. The Stuttgart, Germany native represented in the Patriot League in the ITA Conference Masters in the fall, and he advanced to the quarterfinals before falling to Notre Dame's No. 20 Sebastian Dominko just one win shy of a bid to the NCAA singles championship. Dominko was recently named ACC Player of the Year. Tahirovic's only other losses are Penn State's No. 56 Loren Byers – a loss he avenged later in the season – and the No. 1-ranked player in Division III, Advik Mareedu of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.
Stavrakas joined Tahirovic on the All-Patriot League First Team, and he brings a 24-match winning streak into the NCAA Championship. His last loss came to Richmond's Dylan Atkinson on Nov. 8, and he has only dropped five sets since then.
Liam Kilmer (18-6), Oscar Bain Moreno de Vega (19-7), Brendan McDonald (18-11), and Will Robinson (7-5) round out the Bison singles lineup. All told, the Bison have a 165-54 (.753) singles record over the full season.
Bucknell will be tested by a Cavaliers squad that is 20-7 on the season and ranked No. 4 in the ITA team rankings. Virginia was seeded sixth in the ACC Tournament but advanced all the way to the final after upsetting previously undefeated Wake Forest 4-3 in the semifinals. The Cavaliers were beaten 4-2 by Stanford in the championship match in Cary, N.C.
Virginia has two ranked players at the top of the lineup: No. 4 Rafael Jodar (17-2) and No. 27 Dylan Dietrich (22-8). Jodar was named ACC Freshman of the Year and First Team All-ACC, while Dietrich earned a Second Team All-ACC nod. Dietrich was the ACC Freshman of the Year in 2024.
Bucknell and Virginia will be meeting for the first time in men's tennis. The winner will play either St. John's or Princeton in the second round on Sunday at 1 p.m.
LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Patriot League champion Bucknell men's tennis team will be headed south for its first-ever NCAA Championship match. The Bison will face seventh-seeded Virginia in the first round at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the Virginia Tennis Facility at the Boar's Head Resort in Charlottesville.
Bucknell brings a 19-6 record into the NCAA tourney, tying the school record for dual-match wins in a season. The most recent of those was a 4-1 win over Navy in the Patriot League Tournament final on Apr. 20, which secured the program's first-ever team bid to NCAAs. Bucknell's only other NCAA participants were the doubles team of Gregg Cohenca and Evan Zimmer, who qualified for the individual flighted championship in 2012.
The Bison are led by the 1-2 punch of Amar Tahirovic (33-3) and Adam Stavrakas (35-3) at the top of the lineup. That duo is a combined 68-6 in singles over the full season, and both went unbeaten in Patriot League play. Tahirovic was recently named Patriot League Player of the Year, and he is currently No. 85 in the ITA singles rankings. The Stuttgart, Germany native represented in the Patriot League in the ITA Conference Masters in the fall, and he advanced to the quarterfinals before falling to Notre Dame's No. 20 Sebastian Dominko just one win shy of a bid to the NCAA singles championship. Dominko was recently named ACC Player of the Year. Tahirovic's only other losses are Penn State's No. 56 Loren Byers – a loss he avenged later in the season – and the No. 1-ranked player in Division III, Advik Mareedu of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.
Stavrakas joined Tahirovic on the All-Patriot League First Team, and he brings a 24-match winning streak into the NCAA Championship. His last loss came to Richmond's Dylan Atkinson on Nov. 8, and he has only dropped five sets since then.
Liam Kilmer (18-6), Oscar Bain Moreno de Vega (19-7), Brendan McDonald (18-11), and Will Robinson (7-5) round out the Bison singles lineup. All told, the Bison have a 165-54 (.753) singles record over the full season.
Bucknell will be tested by a Cavaliers squad that is 20-7 on the season and ranked No. 4 in the ITA team rankings. Virginia was seeded sixth in the ACC Tournament but advanced all the way to the final after upsetting previously undefeated Wake Forest 4-3 in the semifinals. The Cavaliers were beaten 4-2 by Stanford in the championship match in Cary, N.C.
Virginia has two ranked players at the top of the lineup: No. 4 Rafael Jodar (17-2) and No. 27 Dylan Dietrich (22-8). Jodar was named ACC Freshman of the Year and First Team All-ACC, while Dietrich earned a Second Team All-ACC nod. Dietrich was the ACC Freshman of the Year in 2024.
Bucknell and Virginia will be meeting for the first time in men's tennis. The winner will play either St. John's or Princeton in the second round on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Players Mentioned
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