Men's Tennis Set to Host Mercyhurst, Temple at Central PA Tennis Center

Saturday, February 7

South Williamsport, Pa.

1 p.m.

Bucknell University

Mercyhurst

Men's Tennis Set to Host Mercyhurst, Temple at Central PA Tennis Center

2/5/2026 5:39:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Mercyhurst (0-0) at Bucknell (2-2)
When: Saturday, Feb. 7, 1 p.m.
Where: Central PA Tennis Center, South Williamsport, Pa.
LIVE RESULTS

Temple (0-1) at Bucknell (2-2)
When: Sunday, Feb. 8, 12 p.m.
Where: Central PA Tennis Center, South Williamsport, Pa.
LIVE RESULTS

Bucknell at a Glance

Bucknell hosts Mercyhurst and Temple this weekend as the busy early season dual-match schedule continues to heat up. The Bison went 1-1 against two tough foes last week. They downed reigning Northeast Conference champion Binghamton on the road by a 5-2 count on Friday, and then Bucknell dropped a tight 4-3 verdict to a strong Delaware team on Sunday.
Notable from the Delaware match were two Bison doubles victories over ranked tandems. At No. 1, Amar Tahirovic and Brendan McDonald downed 35th-ranked Euan Mackenzie and Tobey Lock, 6-3. Mackenzie and Lock became the first Blue Hens doubles team to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the fall. Oscar Bain Moreno de Vega and Adam Stavrakas defeated No. 62 Itamar Tapiro and Federico Garbero 6-2 at No. 2 doubles. Tahirovic and Will Robinson won their singles matches, but the Blue Hens won a three-setter at No. 4 in the last match on the courts to claim the victory.
Bucknell also won the doubles point against Binghamton, and McDonald clinched the team victory with his 6-4, 7-5 win at No. 3 singles. That was a battle of 2025 NCAA Tournament teams, as the Bearcats claimed the NEC Tournament title as the No. 4 seed.
Tahirovic went 4-0 in his singles/doubles matches last week, and on Tuesday he claimed his second straight and record-setting eighth career Patriot League Player of the Week honor. The league record was previously set by Boston University's Corey Craig (2023-24) and Lehigh's Zack Elliott (2019-22) with seven. Tahirovic and Elliott are the only players to earn at least one citation in all four years of their careers.
McDonald and Tahirovic are both on record watch this spring. McDonald's 85 career doubles wins (85-33) are second-most in team history, trailing only Ryan Sandburg (87). Tahirovic's career singles record is 97-23, and he needs 15 more wins to equal Nick Bybel's mark of 112, set from 2012-16. Tahirovic ranks T-3rd all-time in doubles victories with 80. 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 177.
Tahirovic 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.
Tahirovic leads the Bison with a 14-5 singles record, with Stavrakas next at 10-7. Tahirovic and McDonald are now 12-5 in doubles.

Mercyhurst at a Glance/Series History

Bucknell and Mercyhurst will meet for the first time in a men's tennis dual match on Saturday.
The Lakers will be making their 2026 debut after competing in in five tournaments in the fall.
There was one Bucknell-Mercyhurst matchup in the fall, with Bison senior Brendan McDonald defeating Lukas Cabue 6-1, 7-6 at the ITA Northeast Regional in Philadelphia.
That was Cabue's only singles loss of the fall, as he went 3-0 at the Binghamton Invitational. Petar Belosevic went 3-2 in the fall, including a win over Lehigh's Sean Jager at ITA Regionals.
Danylo Rakun was a Second Team All-NEC honoree last season, when the Lakers went 5-11 overall and 2-3 in the NEC.

Temple at a Glance/Series History

Bucknell is 8-8 all-time against Temple in a series that dates back to 1932.
The most recent meeting was a 6-1 Bison win in Philadelphia in 2024. Amar Tahirovic, Adam Stavrakas, Oscar Bain Moreno de Vega, Liam Kilmer, and Tim Zelikovsky all won singles matches for Bucknell.
The Owls are 0-1 on the season after falling 4-1 at Penn State last Saturday. Freshman Oliver Aguilar secured Temple's lone point when his opponent, Reiya Hattori, retired due to injury at No. 3 singles. Aguilar is coming off a strong fall, when he captured the white draw title at the Saint Joseph's Invitational without dropping a set.

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