Men's Tennis Takes on Binghamton, Delaware this Weekend

Friday, January 30

Vestal, N.Y.

6 p.m.

Bucknell University

Binghamton

Men's Tennis Takes on Binghamton, Delaware this Weekend

1/28/2026 9:30:00 AM | Men's Tennis

Bucknell (1-1) at Binghamton (1-1)
When: Friday, Jan. 30, 6 p.m.
Where: Lane-Stark Tennis Center, Binghamton, N.Y.
LIVE RESULTS
WATCH LIVE

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

Bucknell at a Glance

The Bison are back in action this weekend with a pair of tough matches. The squad will travel to Binghamton on Friday evening for a battle of reigning conference champions before hosting Delaware on Saturday afternoon at the Central PA Tennis Center.
Bucknell is 1-1 on the season, with a 7-0 loss to No. 10 Columbia followed by last Saturday's 7-0 blanking of Mount St. Mary's in South Williamsport.
In the win over the Mountaineers, Oscar Bain Moreno de Vega and Will Robinson clinched the doubles point in a tiebreaker at No. 3, and both came back to win their singles matches. Robinson won a three-setter against Ryan Wagner at No. 4, and Bain was a 6-2, 6-2 winner over Alessio Guarino at No. 6. Bain returned to the lineup after missing most of the fall season with an injury.
Amar Tahirovic and Brendan McDonald were also two-time winners. They paired for a 6-4 win at No. 1 doubles, and both won handily at first and third singles. Liam Kilmer (2) and Shiv Singh (5) were also straight-set winners.
Tahirovic earned his Patriot League-record-tying seventh career Player of the Week Award on Tuesday. The record was previously set by Boston University's Corey Craig (2023-24) and Lehigh's Zack Elliott (2019-22). Tahirovic and Elliott are the only players to earn at least one citation in all four years of their careers.
Bucknell returned virtually its entire roster from last year's championship squad, including Patriot League Player of the Year Amar Tahirovic, PL Tournament MVP and First Team All-PL selection Adam Stavrakas, and fellow seniors Oscar Bain Moreno de Vega and Brendan McDonald. The senior class has combined for 274 singles wins and 272 doubles wins.
McDonald and Tahirovic are both on record watch this spring. McDonald's 83 career doubles wins (83-33) are third-most in team history, trailing only Ryan Sandburg (87) and Josh Katten (83). Tahirovic's career singles record is 95-23, and he needs 17 more wins to equal Nick Bybel's mark of 112, set from 2012-16. Tahirovic ranks fifth all-time in doubles victories with 78. He will also have a chance to surpass Sandburg's record, but McDonald will remain ahead of him as long as Bucknell's No. 1 duo continues to partner together.
Tahirovic is also within range of the Bucknell record for combined singles and doubles victories. Bybel holds the record with 192, and Tahirovic has 173.
Tahirovic went 11-4 in the fall, playing in three major ITA tournaments. He and McDonald came one win away from an NCAA doubles bid with a big run at the ITA Conference Masters in San Diego. They won the Patriot League qualifier and then beat pairs from Boise State, UC Santa Barbara and Presbyterian to reach the semifinals. McDonald was honored with the ITA Sportsmanship Award at that event.
Tahirovic also represented the Patriot League in singles at the ITA Conference Masters, where he beat reigning Big East Player of the Year Alejandro Gandini of DePaul in the first round before falling to Martin Birisiouk of N.C. State in three sets in the round of 16. Earlier in the fall, he played in the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla., where he dropped tight matches to opponents from TCU and Baylor, and he won twice in the main draw at the ITA Northeast Regional at Princeton.
Stavrakas went 9-5 in singles in the fall, including a 3-0 mark at the River City Open at Richmond. Stavrakas also played at the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, where he fell to opponents from Florida and Wake Forest.

Binghamton at a Glance/Series History

The defending Northeast Conference champions debuted with two home dual matches last weekend. They blanked Niagara 7-0 on Friday before falling to Navy 5-2 on Saturday.
Binghamton has a strong No. 1 player in Ronin Lotlikar, who beat Navy's Herrick Legaspi 7-5, 7-5 and also teamed with Harry Liao for a win at No. 1 doubles against the Mids. Lotlikar was a First Team All-NEC selection in both singles and doubles last season, and his 71 career doubles wins are two shy of the team record.
Binghamton went 13-12 overall and 4-3 in the NEC last season. As the No. 4 seed in the NEC Tournament, the Bearcats downed No. 5 Saint Francis, No. 1 FDU, and No. 3 LIU to claim their second straight title. They drew Columbia in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and fell 4-0.
Bucknell and Binghamton both competed at the Navy Invitational in the fall, and there were a handful of head-to-head matchups. In singles, Will Robinson defeated Andre Ajed 6-4, 6-4 and Tyler Bush downed Ionnis Sakkas 6-0, 6-2. Bush and Robinson teamed up for a doubles win against Binghamton, as did Liam Kilmer and Nelson Alapi.
Binghamton has had the better of the all-time series, winning nine of the 11 dual matches in a series that dates back to 2000.
Bucknell won the first meeting 4-3 at home in 2000, and then the Bearcats won nine in a row from 2001-16 before the Bison prevailed 7-0 last season.
Last season's match was Bucknell's first outdoor dual of the spring, and the Bison won at 1 and 2 doubles before sweeping all six singles matches, dropping only one set along the way.

Delaware at a Glance/Series History

Delaware gets its spring campaign underway this weekend, hosting Villanova on Friday afternoon before traveling to South Williamsport on Sunday.
The team's fall season was highlighted by Tobey Lock and Euan Mackenzie becoming Delaware's first-ever doubles tandem to qualify for the NCAA Individual Championships. They dropped a 6-3, 7-6 decision to TCU's Cosme Rolland De Ravel and Albert Pedrico Kravtsov. Lock and Mackenzie qualified by winning six straight matches at the ITA Northeast Regional at Penn. The first of those wins came against Bucknell's Liam Kilmer and Will Robinson, and they later toppled two pairs from Columbia and one each from Princeton and Penn.
Including the NCAA appearance, Delaware competed in five fall tournaments, combining for a 46-30 record in singles and 32-11 in doubles.
Delaware's top singles winners in the fall were Luke Tollenaar (11-2) and Mason Robins (10-1).
The Blue Hens went 14-9 overall and 8-0 at home last season. They were the No. 4 seed at the CAA Championship, and after sweeping Hofstra 4-0 in the quarterfinal round, Delaware was ousted by UNC Wilmington 4-1 in the semis.
Bucknell and Delaware first met in 1933, and the series is all square at 28-28-1. The last meeting came in February 2024, and the Blue Hens prevailed 6-1 at the Elkton Tennis Center. Bucknell's point came from Tim Zelikovsky at No. 6 singles.

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