Men's tennis Set for NCAA Tourney Debut at Virginia

2025 NCAA MEN'S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP
First Round: Bucknell (19-6) at No. 7 seed Virginia (20-7)
When: Saturday, May 3, 1 p.m.
Where: Virginia Tennis Facility at the Boar's Head Resort, Charlottesville, Va.

Bucknell at a Glance

Bucknell is set to make its first-ever team appearance at the NCAA Men's Tennis Championship on Saturday. The Bison drew seventh-seeded Virginia in the opening round, and the winner will take on either St. John's or Princeton in the second round on Sunday.
It has been a storybook season for the Bison, who got over the hump and won a Patriot League title after near-misses in 2023 and 2024. Some of the milestones set this season:
- Bucknell captured its first Patriot League championship since 1991, when it was an individually flighted format. This was the team's first crown since the league adopted a team format in 1994.
- Bucknell's 19 wins are tied for the most in team history. The 1998 squad finished 19-2.
- On Feb. 1, Bucknell defeated Army (4-1) for the first time since 1974, snapping a 34-match losing streak to the Black Knights.
- Bucknell's 4-1 win over Navy in the Patriot League Tournament final was its first-ever win over the Midshipmen. The Bison had been 0-52 all-time against Navy, including PL semifinal defeats in each of the previous three seasons.
- This is the first time in team history that the Bison have won 15 or more matches in three straight seasons. Bucknell is now 50-21 in Jason Cohen's three-year tenure as head coach.
Bucknell's only previous NCAA participants were the doubles team of Gregg Cohenca and Evan Zimmer, who qualified for the individual flighted championship in 2012.
Junior Amar Tahirovic nearly qualified for the NCAA individual singles tournament in the fall but fell one win shy of a bid at the ITA Conference Masters in Georgia. The four semifinalists earned automatic bids, and Tahirovic advanced to the quarterfinals before falling to Notre Dame's No. 19 Sebastian Dominko.
Tahirovic has been ranked as high as 84th and is currently 89th in the ITA men's singles rankings. He is 33-3 on the season, with his only three losses coming to Dominko, Penn State's No. 58 Loren Byers at the ITA regionals in the fall, and Division III No. 1 Advik Mareedu of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Tahirovic avenged the loss to Byers in a dual match in January.
Tahirovic earned Patriot League Player of the Year honors this spring and was named to the All-Patriot League First Team for the third straight year. He was joined on the First Team by classmate Adam Stavrakas, and Cohen was selected as the PL Coach of the Year.
Stavrakas is 35-3 on the season and 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. One of his three losses came to Tahirovic in the final of the Patriot League qualifier for the ITA Conference Masters.
Tahirovic and Stavrakas are a combined 68-6 in singles play this season, and they are just the second and third Bison ever to win 30 matches in a season. Nick Bybel won a record 38 in 2014-15.
While Bucknell's top two players have certainly led the way this season, Liam Kilmer (18-6) and Oscar Bain Moreno de Vega (19-7) have also played terrific tennis, and they secured the third and fourth points in the win over Navy in the PL final.
Bain has won 10 straight matches and is 14-4 in duals. 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 spring.
Bucknell is now 165-54 (.753) in singles and 74-42 (.638) in doubles in 2024-25.
Tahirovic is now 83-17 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 .830 winning percentage.
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.

Virginia at a Glance/Series History

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. 32 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.