Men's Tennis Hosts Navy Friday in Battle of Patriot League Unbeatens; Lafayette Match Pushed Back to Sunday

** SCHEDULE UPDATE: The Bucknell-Lafayette match has been postponed until Sunday at 4 p.m. due to the forecast of inclement weather. **

Navy (16-13, 4-0 PL) at Bucknell (13-5, 3-0 PL)
When: Friday, Apr. 4, 3 p.m.
Where: Varsity Tennis Courts, Lewisburg, Pa. (Indoor Backup: Central PA Tennis Center, South Williamsport, Pa.)
WATCH LIVE
LIVE RESULTS

Bucknell (13-5, 3-0 PL) at Lafayette (4-11, 1-3 PL)
When: Sunday, Apr. 6, 4 p.m.
Where: Leopard Courts, Easton, Pa.
LIVE RESULTS

Bucknell at a Glance

Bucknell's biggest match of the spring to date comes on Friday afternoon, when the Bison host Navy at 3 p.m. The Bison and Midshipmen are the last two unbeaten teams in the Patriot League – Bucknell is 3-0 and Navy 4-0 against PL foes – and Friday's result could have Patriot League Tournament seeding implications. The Bison are also scheduled to play Lafayette on Saturday.
Bucknell has won four straight matches and is 13-5 overall this spring. The Bison swept Loyola 7-0 last Saturday and also has Patriot League wins over Army and Colgate. Bucknell still has Navy, Lafayette, Lehigh, and Holy Cross on the schedule before hosting the Patriot League Tournament in two weeks.
Bucknell has reached double-digit wins for the fourth straight year and now has 13 or more for the 12th 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 33-1 in dual matches this spring. Stavrakas is 29-3 over the full season and 18-0 in duals. He brings an 18-match winning streak into the Navy match, 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' 29 singles wins are tied with former teammate Tim Zelikovsky for the No. 2 spot in Bucknell history. Nick Bybel won a record 38 matches in 2014-15.
Meanwhile, Tahirovic is now 26-3 with eight 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 this week at No. 124. 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 seven straight matches and is 11-4 in duals, 16-7 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 144-51 (.738) in singles and 63-37 (.630) in doubles in 2024-25.
Tahirovic is now 76-17 in singles in his career, and he has moved into a tie for second place with Ira Reibeisen (2004-08) 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 .817 winning percentage.
Tahirovic is also 64-31 in career doubles matches, and his 139 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.

Navy at a Glance/Series History

Bucknell is 0-51 all-time against Navy in a series that dates back to 1950. The Bison did defeat the Midshipmen 5-4 in a preseason exhibition match prior to the 1970 season, but have never beaten Navy in a regularly scheduled dual match.
Navy has eliminated Bucknell in the Patriot League Tournament semifinals in each of the last three seasons. The last two have been close, as the Midshipmen won 4-3 in 2023 and 4-2 last season.
Bucknell players went 7-0 in singles and 3-0 in doubles against Navy in fall tournament action. Most of those matches came at the Navy Invitational in November. Adam Stavrakas defeated Jeffrey Etterbeek 6-1, 6-0 in the round of 16 at the Patriot League qualifier for the ITA Conference Masters.
With a large roster, Navy often splits its squad among two dual matches on a given date, and the Mids currently have a 16-13 overall record. In Patriot League play, they have beaten Colgate, Boston University, Lehigh, and Lafayette. In addition to Bucknell, Navy has Holy Cross, Loyola, and Army left on its league slate. The Army-Navy match will be held on Apr. 12 at West Point.
Navy's top group downed Lehigh 5-2 last weekend. Herrick Legaspi (1), Luke Garner (3), Jake Young (4), and Aniketh Ayinala (6) all won singles matches in straight sets. Etterbeek lost in a third-set super tiebreaker at No. 5, and Nathan Nguyen retired in the third set at No. 2 after the match had been clinched.
Legaspi is 6-3 at No. 1 singles, 12-4 in duals, and 15-12 on the full season. Nguyen has also played six matches in the No. 1 spot and is 4-2.

Lafayette at a Glance/Series History

The Leopards are 4-11 in dual matches, with the wins coming against Franklin & Marshall (4-3), Coppin State (6-1), Salem (4-0), and Loyola (4-3). Since beating the Greyhounds on March 21, Lafayette has dropped three straight Patriot League matches to Holy Cross (4-1), Army (4-0), and Navy (6-1).
Lafayette is scheduled to visit Villanova on Friday before hosting Bucknell.
Lafayette competed at the Bucknell Invitational back in September, and the Bison went 7-0 in head-to-head matches. Amar Tahirovic won 6-0, 6-1 against Lafayette's No. 1 Arman Ganchi.
Bucknell has won 20 straight dual matches against the Leopards and leads the all-time series 55-20 dating back to 1936.
Bucknell won 7-0 last season in Lewisburg.

Next Up

Bucknell wraps up the regular season with two matches next Saturday in Bethlehem, Pa. The Bison will face host Lehigh at 10 a.m., followed by Holy Cross at 4 p.m.